3 Major Reasons Why India Can’t Win World Cup 2023: Team India suffered another heartbreak in an ICC tournament when they lost the WTC Final 2023 to Australia at The Oval, extending their decade-long drought of an ICC trophy for the senior men’s team.
But, India, Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, have an opportunity not too far away to end that wait, and win the biggest prize of all: ODI World Cup.
What makes India firm favorites for this year’s quadrennial event is that they are hosting the tournament, in October-November. The last time India hosted the ODI World Cup was when they ended their 28-year long wait of an ODI World Cup in 2011 under MS Dhoni’s captaincy.
While India are a powerhouse at home, having lost only one ODI series in last three years at home, there are a few reasons why the Asian giants could even fail to reach the semis, let alone win the knockout matches.
Here are 3 major reasons why India might not win the World Cup 2023:
Outdated batting approach
There is no argument is assessing India’s batting approach in white-ball cricket as outdated and not at the level with the likes of England and Australia. While the top of those teams aim to press on the accelerator right from the outset of the innings, India’s top 3 are more indulged in settling in first and building a platform for themselves.
Over the past couple of years, captain Rohit Sharma has tried to get off to quick starts, but in doing so, his average and frequency of impactful, significant knocks have dipped. Shubman Gill replaced Dhawan at the top and has come like a breath of fresh air to this top order, but how long can he keep the consistency at the highest level is to be seen, while Virat Kohli continues to bat in his own tempo and remains stubborn about not playing attacking shots and taking risks in the first half of his innings.
The injury list of players never cease
Since 2021, India has rarely played their full-strength team and has constantly been using backups and reserves with several of their first-choice and crucial players getting injured.
Sachin Tendulkar once asserted how important it was for the entire team to be together in the months leading up to the World Cup 2011 as that helped them gel together well and perform collectively in the tournament.
For this Indian team, though, they have been missing player after player through injuries. So much so that in the WTC Final, at least three of the first-choice players – Pant, Bumrah, and Iyer, along with KL Rahul – were absent. How can a team win big tournament without their best players?
Lack of rest time for players ahead of a major tournament
After the loss in the WTC Final 2023 at The Oval, India captain Rohit Sharma said that ideally, the team needed 20-25 days of preparation time ahead of the final, but only got a week after the IPL ended. Former head coach Ravi Shastri responded by saying that the players need to make a choice between the IPL and preparing for important matches.
India have perhaps the busiest schedule of all cricket team and adding the IPL to that, it burns players, and it is also a reason for the constant injuries. Players need rest time to remain fresh and fit, especially ahead of big ICC events. At the moment, it doesn’t seem like the players will get enough rest ahead of the World Cup 2023, which in itself will be a long tournament with 9 league matches for each followed by knockouts.
