The Indian cricket team is experiencing an extraordinary streak, having lost 20 consecutive tosses in One Day Internationals (ODIs) with odds of this happening being less than one in a million.
Indian stand-in captain KL Rahul admitted he is surprised by this unusual run of bad luck starting during the 2023 World Cup final in Ahmedabad when Rohit Sharma was leading the team.
“I was practicing, but clearly it didn’t work,” Rahul said after losing the toss on December 3 against South Africa in Raipur.
He went on to say he hoped to break the streak in the third ODI on December 6 in Visakhapatnam.
“Honestly, this is the thing that puts the most pressure on me because we haven’t won a toss in a long time,” he said.
India last won an ODI toss in November 15, 2023, when they faced New Zealand in the World Cup semi-final in Mumbai.
The team has since failed to win a single toss under three different captains, Rohit Sharma, regular ODI captain Shubman Gill and now KL Rahul.
Batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said that Rahul mentioned practicing for tosses, but added, “How can you know what the opposing captain will call?”
Gavaskar explained that different captains may have different preferences, with some favouring heads and others tails.
Former South African fast bowler Dale Steyn revealed that Faf du Plessis once asked South African captain Temba Bavuma to call the toss after a long losing streak.
Steyn said it was the first time he had seen a captain let another player call the toss, yet Bavuma also lost that toss.
This rare statistical anomaly has captured the attention of cricketing fans around the globe as India searches for its first ODI toss win in nearly two years.