"So close , yet so far " has been the tale for Team India in ICC events since the past decade. It's been a decade since the Champions Trophy victory in 2013, and since then it's been a long long wait for Indian fans to rejoice the moment of having an ICC trophy. Every ICC trophy looked like a dream in the initial stages (barring 2021 T20 world cup), and ended being a nightmare in the knockouts.

The inaugural edition of the World Test Championship which ended in 2021 met with a similar fate. The table toppers India looked clear favourites going in the final , where Williamson and his men shattered the hopes of the cricket crazy country, taking the test mace to New Zealand. And today, the Aussies made it sure that the mace remains in the Australian continent, breaking hearts of a billion fans.

There was however some difference in the two WTC's for India. The first one was where India purely dominated the league stage and deserved a place in the final. On the other hand, the 2nd edition of the same tournament looked like a see saw where no one was sure whether India would make it to Oval or not. But fortunately some good cricket from Men in Blue, and Williamson's and Daryl Mitchell's heroics against Sri Lanka sealed the place for India for the 2nd consecutive time.

Similarly, another difference was that most of the Indian batters looked in good rhythm before the Oval final, unlike the one in Southampton where the most experienced one's found it difficult to be at their best. Therefore, even without Bumrah and Pant, it looked like this team can now end the drought of the ICC events. However, it ended the same way it has been since the decade.

The only thing which went India's way on the first day was winning the toss. No one knew what was to follow, as a surface which looked great for the bowlers eventually turned out to be a heaven for Aussie batters. But suddenly when India was given a chance to bat, it looked like both the teams were playing on different wickets. Credit has to be given to Kangaroos as they batted and bowled really well. Everything was going good for Kangaroos, when the two Mumbaikars stood in between them and an easy win.

The in form Ajinkya Rahane looked in magnificent touch. Making a strong comeback after 17 months, he held the crease from one end ,with sheer class and some stroke of luck. Even with a finger injury, Jinks continued to be a thorn in the flesh for Aussies. Along with him was Shardul Thakur- the match winner for India at the same venue in 2021 test match when India toured England. He took the blows on his hand several times, and gave some blows to Aussies some time later. Both these displayed bravery and showed that they won't be giving up easily.

Eventually India averted the follow on, but were still trailing by a huge margin. The Indian bowlers tried their best to restrict the in form Aussies for a mediocre score and a brave declaration from Aussies showed that they wanted to go for a victory rather than playing safe and settling for a draw. Indian batters took the challenge, and Rohit, Rahane, Kohli held on Indian expectations for some time, before the team collapsed in for a massive Australian victory and a humiliating Indian defeat. A defeat which raised questions again about team India whether they are good enough or not.

So , is the Indian team really good despite of not having any titles since 2013 ?? The answer is ... YES!!! It is. Yes the team has not won any titles, but it is consistently reaching in the knockouts of the tournament, something which didn't happen too often in the past. It has happened so many times, that anything lesser than a knockout qualification for India is considered as a failure. In 8 out of the 9 ICC events since 2013, India has qualified for knockouts being 4 times finalists and 4 times semi-finalists. Yes, the final result hasn't gone in our favour, but the stats justify how consistently good this Indian team is. Final is just one good day of cricket, which unfortunately has not been in our team's favour. But today or tomorrow, it will happen if the consistency of our team reaching knockouts remains the same. And therefore, even if Men in Blue lost the match today, as an Indian, I am extremely proud of my team the way they have performed, and I'll continue to support my team even if there are days the result doesn't go in our favour.