The Indian Premier League (IPL) should ideally be the perfect practice ground before the World T20. But if we look at past performances of India, each time the Men in Blue have failed to qualify for the knock-outs of the World T20, they have gone into the event after the IPL. Whereas, when they became champions in 2007, the IPL wasn’t there and in 2014 and 2016, when they made the final and semis respectively, the World T20 took place just before the IPL.
Former India trainer Ramji Srinivasan, who was with the team from 2009-13, attributes it to three factors – players peaking before World T20, inability to adapt for an event where the margin of error is very less after a long league and fatigue. “Players give their best for the franchises and look to peak at the business end of the IPL. It is very difficult to find the same high within two weeks again,” Ramji told TOI.

In IPL, teams also get 14 matches and there can be ups and downs on course. “But in World T20, one or two bad days may end your event. It had happened to us in that 2009-12 phase,” the trainer said, adding that the fatigue of playing the format for so long also takes its toll.
TOI TAKES A LOOK AT THE FOUR T20 WORLD CUPS, INCLUDING 2021, WHERE INDIA HAVE MISSED (OR ABOUT TO MISS) THE KNOCK-OUTS
2009: The 2009 IPL took place in South Africa between April 18-May 24 while the T20 World Cup started on June 5. The Indian players had no recovery time after a hectic two months of travelling and cricket in South Africa. The conditions in England, too, were significantly different than what it was in South Africa and MS Dhoni’s men lost all their three Super 8 games – to West Indies, South Africa and England – with coach Gary Kirsten saying that the team suffered from IPL fatigue. It is to be noted that Pakistan didn’t have any representation in the IPL and they went on to win the World T20.
2010: This time, the IPL final took place on April 25 and India were in West Indies immediately after that for World T20 from April 30. This time too, India were miserable in the Super 8s, going down to Australia, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The slow pitches of West Indies weren’t conducive for the Indian stroke-players after two-month long run-fest in the IPL.
2012: The 2012 debacle, probably, cannot be attributed directly to IPL fatigue, because India went into the World Cup in Sri Lanka two months after the event. But then, as Ramji said before, the players had reached their T20 peaks during the franchise event and it was difficult to recreate it at the World T20. However, they won two games in the Super 8s and were knocked out on Net Run Rate, with Australia and Pakistan going through from the group.
2021: Had it not been for Covid, we wouldn’t have got to this extraordinary situation where India had to go into World T20 right after the second phase of IPL. But as Jasprit Bumrah pointed out, bubble fatigue may have been a factor as all the Indian stars have been at the UAE since September before a long series in England. All the hype around adjusting to UAE pitches by playing IPL has also fallen flat and teams like Pakistan and England, which have more fresh players after a decent break, have looked way more threatening so far.