Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has said that the India team were not brave enough in the 2023 World Cup final against Australia and eventually failed to win on the big day once again. Questioning India’s batting approach in the final, Gambhir added that they did not do anything to put Australian bowlers under pressure as well.
In an interaction with Sportskeeda, Gautam Gambhir said: “I have always maintained this – the most courageous team will go on to win the World Cup. I can understand that for some time you want to build a partnership. But 11-40 overs is a very long period of time. India should have accelerated and taken a risk at that stage.”
READ MORE: Virat Kohli shares the importance of maintaining diet
“I actually would have liked India going really aggressive with the top six, seven batters. Even if they got all out for 150, I would have been fine. But you scored 240 and thought you can fight. In World Cup finals, you don’t fight – it has to be either this way or that way. That is the approach I would have taken. Either we go 150 all out or 300. That is what India has lacked and this is why India has not gone on to win ICC tournaments,” Gambhir again said.
However, Rohit Sharma (47 off 31) got India off to a quick start again, but Team India lost momentum after the dismissal of Rohit. Although Kohli and KL Rahul tried their best, they could only manage 240 in 50 overs. Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir said that KL Rahul should have gone after the bowling since Kohli was playing the anchor role in the game as well.
READ MORE: “Can be the future captain of India” – Kiran More on Ruturaj Gaikwad
“Probably Rohit should have sent that message before the start of the game that even if I get out, we are going aggressive. Virat’s role is to anchor the innings from one end, but rest all the other batters go hard. If you are able to take five singles in an over, that is also called positive cricket. But, if you are playing 4-5 dot balls in an over, the game is going nowhere. If Virat was in, KL should have gone. He should have said that, I am going to take those risks. We might have got out for 150, but imagine if we were brave and had scored 310, you could have won the World Cup. India were not brave enough, courageous enough and that’s where we lost the finals,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.
