“Test team is one of the best travelling sides….”: Ashwin reacts to Michael Vaughan’s ‘India is underachieving team’

New Delhi [India]: Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hit back at former England skipper Michael Vaughan’s remark that India are ‘underachievers’ and stated that the team has been one of the best travelling sides in Test cricket.

Recently, Vaughan termed the Indian men’s cricket team “one of the most underachieving teams in the world” for not being able to win big despite a massive amount of resources and talent. Vaughan made this point on the FOX Cricket panel during the Australia-Pakistan second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

“Here’s a question for you: India, in terms of cricket, are they one of the most underachieving sports teams in the world?” Vaughan said.

“With all the talent that they have, I think they are, yeah. Well, they do not win anything. When was the last time they won something? With all the talent they have, all the skillsets… they won here (Australia) twice, magnificent but the last few World Cups, been nowhere, T20 World Cups, nowhere. You go to South Africa, who are, you know, useful in Test match cricket and to produce a performance like that… I mean, with all the talent they have, and the resources they have, I do not think they win anything,” he added.

To this, Ashwin hit back, saying on his YouTube channel that though India has failed to capture ICC trophies, its Test team is one of the best travelling sides.

“Michael Vaughan made a statement after the first Test that India is an underachieving team. Yes, we haven’t won ICC trophies for years. We call ourselves the powerhouses of the game. But the Test team has been one of the best travelling teams in the vicinity. We have seen many great results,” he said.

“After he said that, so many experts from our own country started questioning if India is an underachieving team. Frankly, it made me laugh,” he added.

Ashwin also said that Indian cricket critics nitpick too much, causing them to overlook a lot of team’s success.

“So, both cricket and Test cricket are differentiated by fine margins. In a country like India, where we talk cricket in every nook and cranny and consider the sport a religion, I feel we criticise and nitpick too much and get into unnecessary details. I think these are blinding us,” Ashwin concluded.

Over the years, India has seen some big success in Test cricket. They beat Australia at their home territory twice in a row, in 2018-19 and later 2020-21, with the second one being extremely special as the team battled the absence of key players like Virat Kohli, injuries and inexperience. It also managed to draw the Test series 2-2 during the tour of England, having a 2-1 lead under Virat’s captaincy before COVID-19 postponed the final Test. Besides this, Team India also recorded big Test wins in South Africa, most notably in Cape Town within just two days.

India has also been invincible at home, recording wins over Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Australia, Bangladesh etc at home in Tests. This has helped India reach two ICC World Test Championship finals.

But, India last won a major ICC tournament back in 2013, the ICC Champions Trophy. Since then, India has reached the final of the 2014 ICC T20 World Cup, the semis of the 2016 and 2022 T20 World Cup, the semifinals of the 2015 and 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, the final of the ICC Cricket World Cup at home this year and the finals of the 2019-21 and 2021-23 ICC World Test Championship, but has failed to win any of these tournaments despite putting in incredible performances in each of these tournaments and sending teams filled with some of the biggest superstars of the sport.

The most painful of these losses was the one in the final to Australia in the Cricket World Cup at home, following a dominant 10-match winning streak in the tournament.