World Cup 2023: India Put Under Pressure by Australia, Experts Say
© AP Photo / Aijaz Rahi
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India faced defeat in the final of the World Cup 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Sputnik India reached out to experts to look into the reasons behind India’s loss.
The dreams of Indian cricket team and millions of fans were shattered after it lost the World Cup 2023 final match against Australia by six wickets.
After winning the toss, Australia had put India to bat first and restricted it to a meagre total of 240 runs and chased down the target in 43 overs.
From Indian side, skipper Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul scored 47, 54 and 66 runs respectively while Australia was guided to victory by the century of Travis Head and a half century of Marnus Labuschagne.
While talking to Sputnik India, former Head Strength and Conditioning Coach (SMC) of the Indian Cricket Team Ramji Srinivasan said that the Indian team was firing all 12 cylinders for the entire world cup campaign but final of any tournament is a different game all together and anything can happen.
“It was just that a better team won on the particular day. I think Australia peaked at the right time. They had better plan and played fearless cricket,” Srinivasan said.
He feels that it’s a mind game completely and Australia was a better side in all the departments whether it was bowling, fielding or batting. “Australian side knows how to win the finals. After losing three wickets for just 40 odd runs their batters stitched a partnership,” he added.
Indian and Australian cricket fans
© AP Photo / AMAN SHARMA
India to Learn From Its Failure
Regarding India’s performance in the finals, the ex-Head SMC of the Indian Cricket Team said that he doesn’t believe much in post-mortem and every loss is a learning curve and a stepping stone.
“The Indian team played fantabulous cricket throughout the tournament and everybody worked very hard. Nobody goes inside the ground to lose or just to play. When the team had won 10 out of 10 matches everybody bought accolades on them but they lost one and now people brickbat them is not a nice thing. It’s not the way to treat a sport or a sportsman,” Srinivasan shared.
Talking about Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and his batting approach, he said that he led from the front and it was due to his batting style that the rest of the batters didn’t had much pressure on them.
“Things would have been totally different if India had won the final. People would have been praising Rohit for his selfless approach but now there will be a lot of them speaking against him. I would again say that a better and profession team who was able to execute under pressure had won the World Cup 2023 final,” he said.
He, however, feels that India was a bit short of 40-50 runs and maybe one more partnership during the batting in the top order could have helped India gain momentum and could have built pressure on the Australian side.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waves at the crowd standing next to Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, right, after Australia won the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final match against India
© AP Photo / Rafiq Maqbool
Prospects of India's Cricket Team
The next Cricket World Cup is going to be held in 2027 and a lot of players of the current Indian team might retire before it thus creating a vacuum of experience in the squad.
Talking about the prospects of Indian team in such a scenario, Srinivasan feels that India will have a better team in 2027 as there is no dearth of talent in the country and a lot of youngsters are coming in.
“If you see, out of those who played 2011 World Cup only two players were part of the playing squad in this edition. We have enormous talent pool, which has to be harnessed properly. The guys who will be making place in the team in the future will be more fit, strong and fast,” the ex-SMC stated.
He feels that there has been an evolution in the strength and conditioning coaching over the years around the world and across all sports which has made players better and stronger both physically and mentally.
However, he stressed on the need to have more all-rounders as well as good fast bowlers in order to have a strong team.
“Organisations like MRF Pace Foundation can step in to groom the young talent for the future and take responsibility to produce good fast bowlers for the country because there is a process and protocols in place for Indian fast bowlers which was designed 20 years back and is still going good,” Srinivasan stated.
India's Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the dismissal of Australia's Mitchell Marsh during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final match between Australia and India
© AP Photo / Aijaz Rahi
Mistakes That Took Victory Away
Meanwhile, Mohammed Shami’s head coach Badruddin Siddiqui said that winning or losing is a part of the game but there were several mistakes which Indian side did whereas Australia have shown why they are now six time champions.
“After losing initial wickets, Virat and Rahul stitched a good partnership but failed to capitalise. Indian batters didn’t bat well in the middle overs and took the entire pressure on themselves. Australia’s part-time bowlers like Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh bowled two overs each and gave away only four and five runs respectively. The Indian batters went into a shell and couldn’t express themselves,” Siddiqui told Sputnik India.
On bowling, he said that some changes were not right like Siraj should have been brought into attack after the initial spell of Shami and Bumrah because the initial breakthrough was given by the fast bowlers.
He, however, feels that Rohit might have thought of bringing in spinners keeping in mind that dew might come into play later in the evening because of which spinners will have difficulty in bowling.
“Apart from this, the Indian team never attacked after taking the initial wickets. Slip was not put in place when spinners were bowling and I even feel that spinners didn’t bowl as they were expected to do so,” Siddiqui said.
He said that the Indian side couldn’t soak the pressure that was put on them by the Australian side and in the big matches like World Cup final the team who can soak the pressure will emerge as winner.
On Rohit Sharma’s batting approach, the coach of star Indian bowler said that he had given a flying start to the team in almost all the matches but when a person gets dismissed he is being criticised.
However, Siddiqui feels that he could have played with a lot more responsibility as this was the final of the World Cup.
Australia's captain Pat Cummins, center, and teammates run to celebrate after their win in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final match against India in Ahmedabad
© AP Photo / Aijaz Rahi
Australia Put on Impressive Performance
Praising the Australian side for batting sensibly while chasing the target, the coach said that Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne chipped in easy singles which never created pressure on them.
Sharing his views about the next World Cup, Siddiqui echoed the views of Srinivasan that India has a huge talent pool and a lot of youngsters who can fulfil India’s dream of winning the World Cup for the third time.
India started its World Cup 2023 campaign against Australia on 8 October and from there the team won all its matches till final.
Former Indian skipper and star batter Virat Kohli scored 765 runs in 11 matches including three centuries and six half centuries whereas Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami emerged as the leading wicket taker of the tournament with 24 wickets in just seven matches. Kohli was even judged as Player of the Tournament.
