When will India break New Zealand’s ICC event jinx?  

In the last decade, India have gone from strength to strength and established themselves as one of the superpowers in international cricket. There has been a lot of work that has been put through the roofs in order to achieve that level of success. However, in the past couple of years, India have found one team which always threatens their bid to reach glory. New Zealand.

The familiar hurdle

In 2019, India failed to cross the semi-final hurdle against Kane Williamson’s men to reach the 50 overs World Cup final, despite topping the league stages, by beating everyone but England. In 2021, they lost the ICC World Test Championship final in Southampton in the last hour of the six-day affair. And now, at the 2021 Men’s T20 World Cup, when India needed to beat the Blackcaps in order to almost seal their semi-final spot, they failed yet again.

This defeat should hurt Team India. Tentative with the bat, their shot selection was questionable. New Zealand bowled superbly, but India made their task easier. With their net run rate also taking a beating, a semifinal spot looks a distant dream #INDvNZ #T20WorldCup

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) October 31, 2021

For a more recent generation, these would be live memories, but there is more to this. Since the 1990s, India have only ever beaten New Zealand in one ICC event match. In 1999, India lost a match which eventually helped Blackcaps qualify for the semis, in 2000 New Zealand beat India in the final of ICC Trophy (later known as Champions Trophy), in 2007 India’s only loss during the T20 World Cup was against New Zealand and the 2016 home T20 World Cup started with a loss against the same opposition. The only win which came during this whole era was in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa. So, what is this and why?

Breaking the jinx

Well, there is no simple answer to this question. In sport, there are phases when a team dominates another. For example, it took Pakistan almost 30 years to get a win against India at the World Cup. But, the big question which every Indian fan must be asking is when will this hoodoo end?

For that, India might have to play New Zealand a lot more than they do. As a matter of fact, in the past 30 years, the Blackcaps is one country, who despite being a top-ranked side, don’t really face Indians in the ICC events a lot. It is quite surprising that since 2000, the two sides have played all the 20 ICC men’s tournaments, but have come face to face on only six occasions. Now, that is pretty low compared to the number of times India have faced Pakistan, Australia, Sri Lanka, England or any other top-ranked team.

Having said all of that, the Indian fans can take a breather and tell themselves that there could be a time when they will come up against New Zealand more often and maybe get more chances to end this jinx, which dates back to the time when Ajay Jadeja had just made his international debut. We never know, maybe 2022 will be the year.