Team India ended their World Cup 2023 campaign in a soul-crushing manner. Despite being the best team throughout the tournament, the Men in Blue failed to cross the final hurdle and ended as a runner-up at home. However, there are many things Team India did wrong in the crucial game. Here are 5 reasons why Team India lost the World Cup final to Australia despite being on a 10-match win streak.
Behaviour of the pitch
The pitch played a massive role in the outcome of the match. While batters from both sides had success in the powerplay, the pitch in the first inning was much slower, and class batters like Virat Kohli and KL Rahul failed to get going despite getting settled. In contrast, the pitch in the second innings played much better under lights as Travis Head was able to hit the ball through the line.
Rohit Sharma’s wicket
The turning point of the match was losing skipper Rohit Sharma at the end of the powerplay. Although one can’t question his aggressive approach, the timing of the wicket set India back. India lost Shreyas Iyer in the next over and changed their strategy from attacking to rebuilding the innings.
Too cautious in the middle overs
While it seems that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul’s partnership was what stopped India from collapsing, one has to consider how Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne played in the middle overs. Both Kohli and Rahul went into their shells and let the Australian bowlers dominate. The duo made 63 runs from 18.1 overs and allowed the Australian bowlers to dominate.
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Defensive captaincy from Rohit Sharma
Another glaring mistake from Team India was Rohit Sharma’s captaincy in the middle overs. India needed wickets to have a chance to defend 241 but the Indian skipper did not set an attacking field for spinners. This allowed Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne to just knock around to get easy singles.
Dew factor
Experts and analytics talk about controlling the controllable; however, the dew is something no one has control over. The dew setting in after the powerplay in the second inning meant that bowlers had difficulty gripping the ball, and the pitch got easy for the batters.
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