Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma of India lift the trophy (Photo by Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images)
Former India player Harbhajan Singh dismissed the notion that the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad brings bad luck to the Indian team, stressing that the outcome of matches depends entirely on the performance of the players on the day. The debate over the venue intensified after India’s defeat by the Australia cricket team in the 2023 Cricket World Cup final at the same stadium. However, Harbhajan insisted that the loss had nothing to do with the ground itself and was simply due to Australia playing better cricket in that match.
Ahmedabad erupted as Team India arrived at the hotel after their T20 World Cup win
“When two good teams play against each other, it is obvious that one of them will lose. When India played against Australia (in 2023), Australia was the better team on that particular day.”
In this game, we have seen that if you put your right foot forward from the first ball, you will get hits. “Everything that people thought was unlucky or whatever you heard on social media has now been taken away.” Harbhajan also noted that there were similar perceptions about another iconic venue, Eden Gardens in Kolkata, before the results eventually changed. “A lot of people talk about Eden Gardens too. Eden didn’t have the best records, but at some point that changed.
Fortunately, in our time, we have been able to do this. A lot of people are talking about the Ahmedabad stadium too – if the match is played there, India might lose. But it has nothing to do with the cricketers or the outcome of the match. “It’s the mentality of people who have never played cricket,” Harbhajan told India Today. His statements follow similar views expressed by fellow off-spinner
Ravichandran Ashwin
who also urged fans not to treat the Ahmedabad stadium as a jinx ahead of India’s final match against the New Zealand national cricket team in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. “You can lose a match in one stadium and win the next one. What’s in it? We have won a lot of matches in this stadium. Don’t make a stadium like this taboo,” Ashwin said on his show Ash ki Baat while discussing the conversation surrounding the venue ahead of the title clash. The veteran spinner, who played 106 Tests for India, added that the current Indian team will not be distracted by such narratives. “I don’t think it should come in the way. I’m sure that after a while, that monkey at the back will be there. But now, I don’t think the team will think that way,” he added.
