The former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram shared his thoughts on India's disappointing defeat against Australia in the Cricket World Cup 2023 final on Saturday, November 25. Wasim pointed out the lack of an aggressive approach from the middle order as one of the key reasons behind India's defeat at Narendra Modi Stadium on November 19.
It's almost a week since a heartbreaking defeat for India but the cricket world continues to talk about Australia's dominant win over India. The tournament hosts utterly dominated every opponent with ten wins in ten matches, including a huge win over New Zealand in the semi-final. But Australia robbed them of a trophy with a stellar all-round performance in the summit clash.
Indian batters managed to register only 240 runs while batting first with KL Rahu, Virat Kohli and Shubman Gill scoring fifties. Rahul showed good composure under the pressure and top-scored with 66 runs but took 107 balls which hampered India's chances of scoring a big total.
Rahul came under criticism for his defensive approach in the final with many blaming him for India's defeat. Both Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar Yadav failed to make an impact in the final which was also reflected in the score. But Wasim Akram defended Rahul's batting in the final and said that the wicketkeeper batter was looking to bat deep as India had no specialist batter available after Ravindra Jadeja.
"If I have to pick any particular reason, I suppose the middle order should have played with a ‘do or die’ mindset," Wasim told Star Sports. "I can understand what was going through Rahul’s mind, that there was no batting to come after Jadeja and that he had to bat deep, and batting deep meant he couldn’t take risks of getting out.
"If possibly Hardik was in the team, Rahul probably would take that risk. But, if he had taken a risk and gotten out in this situation, then people would have criticised him for that as well."
Meanwhile, Rahul finished the tournament with 452 runs in 10 innings at an average of 75.33 and a strike rate of 90.76. He also smashed a 62-ball century against Netherlands, the fastest ODI World Cup for India to silence his critics.
