Not being able to cross the final hurdle since 2013 in major ICC events has put Team India's pressure-handling ability in doubt as per many. But former England captain Nasser Hussain reckons the main reason behind the side's ongoing jinx is inapt selection strategy.
Hussain thinks India has been too reactive with its game plan, which it must revisit if the conditions and opposition demand on a big night.
"I would say selection is where India have gone wrong over the ICC tournaments, adapting to conditions a little bit. So it's not just about having one game plan," Hussain, now a popular cricket broadcaster, said on Star Sports' show 'Cricket Connected'.
Unsettled middle-order is an issue that plagued side at just the wrong time in the last year's 50-over World Cup semi-final against New Zealand. Once the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli went early, India never really looked like chasing above 240 in difficult conditions at Old Trafford, eventually succumbing to a painful defeat.
"Adapting to conditions, if it's nibbling around (ball swinging) and if you are in a World Cup semi-final against New Zealand and it's doing a little bit, where is your middle-order if you are 20 for 2 and Kohli and Sharma are out?" Hussain questioned.
"It could almost be a fault of Indian cricket that they are too good at the top of the order. When it's good and flat, okay Kohli hundred, Sharma hundred, hundreds at the top and lads in the middle order don't get a hit."
Stressing on the point, Hussain was slightly critical of skipper Kohli, referring to him as a "tinker man", who, as is often said by people from outside, does chop and change the side a bit too much when it could do with some consistency in selection.
"So, he (Kohli) is his own man, he's got better at certain things or still certain areas I'd like to see Kohli improve on. I call him the 'tinker man'," said Hussain.
"Every over, you have to change the field, he is running up changing things, he tinkers a little bit too much. Selection - I know people say what's that got to do with Kohli, but you got to have a selection plan. I think India did a lot of things well (at the World Cup), I'm not sure selection is one of them," he added.
"Coming to a World Cup, not knowing who your No. 4 is when you got so many great batsmen in India, there are selection issues that need to be sorted out."
"But (at the end of the day) the whole point of captaincy is to win games of cricket. And if you look at Kohli's record as a captain, it is right up there with the best there's ever been," Hussain concluded.
