The 2023 edition of ICC’s Cricket World Cup will reach its end with today’s final. Both the finalist teams, India and Australia have displayed tremendous degree of efforts, not just from a single player but the whole team.
Let’s take a look at the players who could turn the match in India’s favour.
Virat Kohli, the strongest aspect of the Indian batting line-up has proved why he’s called ‘King’ with his consistent performance. He has scored 711 runs in 10 matches with a staggering average of 101.57. His century against New Zealand ensured that India will not fall behind NZ once again in the knockouts. We all want a repeat performance today as well.
‘Bowlers win you tournaments’ is one of the most favourite quotes commentators use. Indian bowlers have proved it right, especially Mohammed Shami who took 23 wickets in just 6 matches. Shami was not included in the original WC squad but came in as a replacement for Hardik Pandya. Since then, he has become the fastest bowler to take 50 wickets in WC in only 17 innings. Mitchell Starc did the same in 19 innings.
The Indian captain has been talking about the ‘intent’ for quite a while now and has been criticized for it a lot as it resulted in his wicket more often than not. But, since the WC began, we got to see a different Rohit Sharma. It was as if he started where he left off in the 2019 WC. With his fearless batting he has managed to give a good start to the team which took pressure off the middle order. Everyone’s eye will be on him and his fearless approach.
Jasprit Bumrah is the menace who has disturbed many great batsmen of this era. He has taken 18 wickets, that too with an economy of 3.98! His overs will decide whether Australians find it easy or hard to bat.
Others who could play a crucial role at the biggest stage of all are Shreyas Iyer (526 runs), Ravindra Jadeja (16 wickets), Kuldeep Yadav (15 wickets) and Mohammed Siraj (13 wickets).
