Virat Kohli was the highest run-scorer of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 with over 700 runs while Rohit Sharma ended as the second highest scorer
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Mohammad Kaif (L) believes the other Indian batters must step up and do not rely on Virat Kohli (R)(Photo: IANS)
Former India batter Mohammad Kaif, who knows exactly how it feels to lose a Cricket World Cup final, has made a massive claim about India’s chances of ending their 15-year wait to land their third world title at during next year’s ODI showpiece at South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The last time that the World Cup took place in the Africas, India had reached the final but lost to eventual champions Australia by a whopping 152 runsExactly 23 years later, the two teams had met again in the 2023 finale, and this time too, the result was the same with the Aussies claiming their record fifth world title with a six wicket win at Ahmedabad.
Mohammad Kaif was a part of the Indian side that lost the 2003 final and also watched how the 2023 title decider unfoldedKaif had even said after the final that the surface was a bit too sluggish and that the hosts made a poor decision in terms of preparing the track.
India were on a splendid run of 10 matches unbeaten before that finale on November 19, 2023In fact, the then Rohit Sharma-led side had beaten Australia in their World Cup opener but Pat Cummins and co took full advantage of their late form.
Building up to the quadrennial showpiece next year, the Indian team needs to learn from their past mistakes and try to minimize their batting dependency on Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
The same thing was pointed out by Mohammad Kaif during his recent chat with the Hindustan TimesKaif admitted that Virat Kohli remains India’s main player but he will need the support of other batters.
“One player will not win you the World Cup abroad, Kohli is the main player, but a lot of others will need to help,” Kaif told Hindustan Times.
Mohammad Kaif then went back in time to remind that even if Sachin Tendulkar was India’s main batter in the 2003 World Cup, substantial contributions were made by others.
“Tendulkar was our main batter, but if you check the matches, others also contributedYuvraj (Singh) got important runs, I got an unbeaten half-century against New Zealand, Rahul Dravid’s runs were there, Virender Sehwag’s runs, Ashish Nehra’s match-winning spell against England, Zaheer Khan bowled good spells, Javagal Srinath was our senior bowler,” Kaif added.
The 45-year-old also gave a lot of credits to Sourav Ganguly for the way he captained the side all the way to the final“Ganguly’s captaincy was excellent, a lot of credit goes to him,” Kaif concluded.
When is India’s next ODI series?
India will face New Zealand in their next ODI series as part of their full fledged all-format tour later this monthThe men in blue will play five ODIs on November 4, 7, 10, 13 and 15 respectively.
