India suffered a heartbreaking loss to Australia in World Cup 2023 as the decade-long wait for the elusive ICC trophy continues. However, India’s 2011 World Cup winner Suresh Raina, in his column for ICC, backed team India in their quest for the ultimate title glory.Suresh Raina was impressed with India’s performance in the tournament and feels that the team will bounce back stronger in the 2027 edition of the ODI World Cup, set to be played in South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
“We will see the Indian team doing well again because they know how to reach the latter stages of tournaments now,” said Raina.Raina went on to dissect team India’s loss in the finals and said that the team succumbed to the pressure created and eventually went on to lose focus.
“It just takes a bit of time to understand how to manage those pressure situations, especially when you’re at home. Sometimes, when there is a lot of pressure, you can lose your focus, and I think that is a lesson they will learn from this,” said Raina.
Australia became six-time World Champions under the leadership of Pat Cummins after defeating India by six wickets in ODI World Cup 2023 finals. The cricketing fraternity lauded the Australian captain for his captaincy in the finals and Suresh Raina too went on to praise Cummins’ leadership.He believes that the captaincy of Pat Cummins played a crucial role in Australia lifting the coveted trophy. Suresh Raina pointed out the bowling changes that kept the Indian batting on chokehold as they were bundled out for 240 despite an aggressive start in powerplay by Rohit Sharma.”What swung the game in Australia’s favour was Pat Cummins’ captaincy. The way he brought Glenn Maxwell into the attack to get the wicket of Rohit Sharma with a brilliant catch from Travis Head was very smart. Adam Zampa was great too, as was Cummins himself in dismissing Virat Kohli.They outplayed India and were very solid in their planning.” said Suresh Raina.Suresh Raina acknowledged Australia’s fielding efforts in the finals that contributed to the team saving 30-40 runs.
“Another big factor was Australia’s fielding. I think they saved 30 to 40 runs. From ball one, they were saving a lot of singles and boundaries. There was Travis’ catch and some excellent work in the deep from David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne,” Raina noted.”I think Cummins showed real temperament in his captaincy. He changed his bowlers knowing he could put pressure on each India batter even though they were all in such good form. His tactics made all the difference, and his planning and execution was perfect,” said Raina.Pat Cummins had picked two crucial wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Virat Kohli and was spot on with his bowling and field changes. While chasing 241 runs, Travis Head led Australia towards victory with his match-winning knock of 137 runs.
