A tactically brilliant Australia and an ill-chosen pitch may have been their undoing in the final, but India 2023 was a team that had much going for it
ALL FOR ONE, ONE FOR ALL: The Indian team huddle during the World Cup match against South Africa at the Eden Gardens, Nov. 5 (Getty Images)
ISSUE DATE: Dec 4, 2023 | UPDATED: Nov 24, 2023 13:32 IST
The pre-match talk ahead of the 2023 Cricket World Cup finals circled around whether the men in blue, led by Rohit Sharma, were the strongest Indian ODI team ever. No one bothered with head-to-head comparisons between India and Australia; instead, the only match-ups that interested the pundits were ‘India in 1983’ vs ‘India in 2011’ vs ‘India 2023’. The verdict was unanimous, with scales heavily tilted in favour of the current Indian bunch. But as soon as the dust settled and Australia were crowned six-time world champions, the question that popped up was: ‘How will history remember India’s class of 2023 after they dominated the tournament so thoroughly, only to fall short at the final hurdle?’