Australia defeated India by 6 wickets in the 2023 World Cup Final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The fact that India had won 10 consecutive matches so far in the tournament makes it even hard to digest that India lost in the final tournament against Australia. Had the Men in Blue during the first innings batted a little fast and aggressively, the result of the game would be different. After India was asked to bat first, the Men in Blue posted only 240 runs with Australia successfully managing to chase the target within 43 overs.
Gautam Gambhir on taking an aggressive approach
Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir reckoned that the players should have taken that risk which was needed at the moment, especially during the middle overs to post a convincing target. He said that skipper Rohit Sharma should have sent the message to the team to take an aggressive approach inspite of losing wickets, that will at least lead the team to more than 240.
“I would have actually liked India going really aggressive with their top 6-7 batters even if they had been all out for 150. I would have been fine. But if you feel you can defend 240 in a World Cup final…that is not where you fight. It is either this way or that. Either we go 150 all out or 300. That is where India have lacked. That is where India have not gone on to win ICC tournaments. Rohit should have sent the message before the game that even if I get out we should go aggressive,” he remarked.
Kohli had played his role well
While speaking about how the target runs could have been posted a little high for the Aussies, Gautam also remarked that Virat Kohli did a good job by anchoring his innings well scoring 54 off 63 runs. On the other hand, KL Rahul ended up scoring 66 runs in 107 balls which he was actually not supposed to do.
He said “Kohli has played a role of anchoring the innings, but the rest all should have been aggressive. KL should have gone. What harm would it have caused? We would have been 150 all out. But had we been brave, we could have scored 310 and India would have been world champions. This is not the 1990s. 240 is not a good score at all. You need 300-plus totals. India were not brave enough.”
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