As the dust settles on Australia’s sixth world title and India’s failure to round off a dominant campaign with silverware, a sense of what could have been lingers for the host nation.
After going undefeated through the first six weeks of the tournament, it felt like they spent the entire season marching with the trophy in the world’s biggest stadium. This was a moment where their standing in the modern game rose and fell. The opposing team expressed this perfectly off the pitch as well.
Instead, that dream was shattered into 130,000 tiny pieces in a thrilling final. Australia played a near-perfect game, appreciating the conditions better than India and adapting their game plan to the challenge.
Much of the post-finale debrief focused on the almost cosmic forces at work. The inevitability of what would happen to Australia in the World Cup final, or India’s recent failure to land a fatal blow in World Cup cricket, lurked behind them like the Grim Reaper.
But there is a simpler explanation for India’s untimely demise. Without Hardik Pandya, they were actually far from being the unstoppable force that the results suggested. India were always vulnerable without Pandya, an adaptable No. 6 and versatile fast bowler. But until the final, this weakness was covered by the unsustainably excellent form of several key players.
Hardik’s all-round ability is so important that he had to be replaced twice due to injuries. First, he was replaced by Suryakumar Yadav in the eleven. Yadav is one of his best T20 batsmen in the game, but he has yet to do well in ODI cricket despite having ample chances. From his ODI debut in July 2021 to the start of the 2023 World Cup, only Shubman Gill played more ODI cricket for India. He was given almost every opportunity to succeed, but after his 30 ODIs, the average was less than his 28. Another change he made was that Shardul Thakur was replaced by Mohammed Shami.
Without Pandya, India will realistically only have five bowling options. Thakur, a less penetrating bowling threat but a more capable batsman than Shami, was dumped. India had the unproven option of a No. 6 and No. 8 player who would be the No. 11 batsmen against India’s two favorites, but if someone gets injured or has a bad day at work, If this happens, you will not be able to participate in bowling at all. These are not typically the building blocks of a championship team.
These defects were not immediately obvious. First of all, this was a strange tournament. Unlike World Cups in other sports, the league composition of the group stage determines how teams compare to each other. In fact, at the top he had three teams – Australia, India and South Africa, let’s call them the big three – and the rest is the rest.
The Big 3 won 21 of 22 games against non-Big 3 opponents, with the only exception being the Netherlands’ win over South Africa. All of the remaining losses for the Big Three were against each other. India only lost to Australia, Australia only lost to South Africa, and India and the Proteas only lost to two finalists, apart from the loss to the Netherlands. Essentially, given the inequality of the game, the best teams had little chance to properly test for flaws such as differences in quality. A winning streak can occur even if it is not given much importance.
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Partly down to the quirks of this World Cup format and also the remarkable form of Rohit, Kohli and Shami in particular, India’s vulnerability wasn’t exactly on display as they kept racking up win after win. But the warning signs were there. Against England, they quickly abandoned the aggression that otherwise characterised their tournament after the loss of two wickets inside the first six overs, before losing their third (Shreyas Iyer) just after the opening powerplay. They adapted their method and nudged up to 229, in part thanks to Yadav’s most impactful innings of the tournament. That 229 was more than enough on that occasion as inspired spells from Jasprit Bumrah and Shami blew away a hapless England, but for the first time, the route to defeat was there for all to see. Early wickets will encourage a drastic change in approach as there is very little batting power up front.
The same was true for the finals. Shubman Gill played a skill in the middle, Rohit was caught at cover with a blinder and Iyer fell outside the powerplay, just like against England. The responsibility for the rebuild was placed on Kohli and Rahul. They did so in a way that suggested they were fully aware, or perhaps too aware, of how little influence they had under them. The 30-over period from 11 to 40 was quite remarkable and surprisingly quiet. India reached just two boundaries in those 150 balls, giving up all initiative and hopes of a great result. The balance of their team tilted the balance of risk and reward against any kind of counterattack against them and meant that Pat Cummins could happily shuffle the puck and sneak in from the sixth and seventh bowlers. – This is a luxury that only India can have Dreams are without consequences. For example, Travis Head and Mitch Marsh bowled a total of nine runs in four uneventful overs.
India rose to 240 on this occasion, but it was far from enough, especially as Head had no problem taking risks in the middle overs, which India had not thought of. India reached two boundaries between 11 and 40 in the over, while Australia reached 17. Yes, this was partly due to the changing conditions in Australia’s favor, but it was also a result of the difference in balance between the two teams. Without Hardik, India would have always been disproportionately vulnerable to losing wickets early on.
The runner-up medal should not be seen as an anomaly. Even on the biggest stage, they never blurted out their lines. Their productions were always in danger of suffering without someone who may not have been their biggest star in the past, but who is now considered their most irreplaceable star.
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