One of my mentors has often coached me about the importance of playing to win versus playing to compete. Growing up, we were always told to be good sportive people and take pride in participation and not be obsessed about winning. At one level, it seems the right advise, but at another level it seems it is not good enough to survive in the corporate world. There is also this thought in my mind that you should be obsessed about your actions and processes and less worried about the results as they are not in our control.

While these thoughts constantly go through my mind, I noticed the summary score card of the Indian team’s home season record from Sept 2019 to Jan 2020. I took the performance of the Indian team between Sept 2019 to Jan 2020 starting with the India South Africa T 20 series and culminating with the India Australia ODI series. The Indian team played five different countries (Australia, South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) at home  with each country differing in their composition, style of cricket and form as well. There were 5 lessons I picked analyzing the data and the performances in the context of playing to win. I am sharing them with you.

Excluding the games that were washed out, there were 21 results, of which India won 16 and lost 5. This includes Test matches, ODIs and T 20s. This was played across 8 series of which Indians were man of the series in 7 while the lone one they lost went to Quinton De Kock of South Africa. Of the 7 MOS awards, Rohit had 2 while Virat, KL, Deepak Chahar, Saini and Ishant got one each. It is fascinating to note that 3 of the 7 awards went to Indian fast bowlers in Indian conditions. The first lesson for me, beyond the growth of the Indian fast bowling quality, is that when teams play to win, terms such as conditions of the surface don’t matter so much because they are focused on what they can control and not worry about things they cannot control.

Of the 16 games they won, Rohit and Virat won Man of the match awards 5 times while the remaining six were shared by KL, Saini, Chahar, Mayank, Ishant and Shardul. The second lesson is, Leaders have to lead from the front if they expect their teams to win and not just compete. Both Rohit and Virat have led the sides when either of them took rest and the phenomenal performances from their bat are a clear motivator to the rest of the team members and a big enabler of the play to win mindset.

Of the 6 times the man of the match was won by others, except for Ishant and Rahul, the remaining 4 were won by cricketers who were playing their first or second big international season. Interestingly all 4 of them (Shardul, Saini, Chahar and Mayank) were consistent performers in domestic cricket as well as India A sides and had a lot of self confidence coming in, even though it was their first big season. The third learning for me is, team members have to be consciously developed for bigger challenges in a carefully crafted manner if we need to develop winning teams.

There was another important lesson I learnt from the defeats. While the team lost 5 times, they never lost 2 in a row. What does it point out? This is a team that can make mistakes, but they are agile and nimble enough to learn and stay humble and recover quickly. The fourth lesson for me is, Winning teams also make mistakes, but the speed at which they recover differentiates them from other teams.

The team won 16 of the 21 matches which is an impressive 80%. However there is a lesson there. Of the 5 matches they lost, all of them were lost when they batted first. One can argue this team has a chink in the armor which is batting first. They lost 5 times out of 8 times they batted first in a T20 or ODI game which gives hope to opposition teams. The lesson is, Great teams have chinks in the armour and it is important to learn what they are and constantly address them.

I am sure there are many die hard cricket fans who may agree or poke holes with my learnings. Ia m looking forward to hearing you out. Enjoy the reading!