What went wrong for India in the finals of Cricket World Cup 2023?

Finals of the cricket world cup 2023 is an event which every Indian will never forget for the next four years. Despite being the best performer in the tournament with records on all fronts, India terribly lost the finals to the kangaroos just like 2003.

While we do not doubt the capability of our very own team, the fact remains that we lost the world cup. That too despite being the best team that won all matches in a single tournament for the year. Australians consider it a surprise victory.

Here is a Thought Habitat perspective on what went wrong for men in blue.

Tricky pitch

In our previous blog, we mentioned that Ahmedabad is a bowlers pitch. Some of our readers defied with me and said that it is a batting pitch. Well, I don’t defy with them as they are right as well. The best example to quote here will be India versus South Africa match that took place on 27 February 2010 where South Africa scored a whopping 365/2. Therefore, the unpredictability of the pitch is the primary reason. However, it is upto the skill of the batsmen to use the pitch to his favour and that too if it is your home pitch.

Perspective matters

2003 and 2023 more or less had the same narrative. Indian cricket team had all technical aspects in its favour. Yet, India lost in the finals to Australia. While some would say Australian cricket team was in good form, the actual fact is, our players literally felt intimidated in front of Australia despite they being capable of performing better than them. Suryakumar Yadav fearing to take a boundary is a testimony to this fact. KL Rahul, who did the best wicket keeping throughout the tournament, missing some couple of catches is another example to quote.

Fielding errors

David Warner and Travis Head stopped every single boundary that could have increased India’s chances of scoring better. Fans at the stand were visibly cursing David Warner for stopping all our 4s and the catch of Rohit Sharma broke everyone’s heart. On the other hand, the very first ball went to a boundary, which was missed by Virat Kohli. With good fielding, India could have stopped Australia’s chase.

Batsmen take a backseat

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and KL Rahul pushed the score with utmost care. However, Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja were looked upon to score well so that we touch at least 300. A six from Suryakumar Yadav would’ve boosted audience morale and our score. A couple of 4s from Ravindra Jadeja at a time when India was losing hope would’ve been a confidence booster. Yet, they couldn’t achieve their full potential.

Look forward for the best

We did lose the world cup, but not our hopes on the Indian team. We still believe the same team will bring us glory in the future if they do some course corrections. At the end, even though we lost in 2003, we did lift the world cup in 2011. With the same hopes, let us look forward for a better performance in the upcoming tournaments. But to do so, a change of perspective is very much needed for the Indian cricket team.