Sunil Gavaskar underlines reason why India couldn’t win 2019 World Cup

There have been comprehensive dialogue with respect to India’s 2019 World Cup campaign. India were one of the favourites to win the title after a magnificent run in the last few years. The men in blue led by Virat Kohli finished at the top of the pile following the group stage.

It looked certain that India would be heading to the finals after the bowlers reduced New Zealand to 240 in the semifinals.

But it all came crashing down from there. The top-order failed, the middle order could not do much and it was down to MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja to keep India in the game. However, the match ended when MS Dhoni was oddly run-out.

Everytime a debate happens regarding the World Cup, the conversation turns towards management’s lack of ability to get a settled no.4 batsman. Former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar also agrees that India made a mistake by not having a proper no.4 batsman.

“What we need to look at is to have somebody at 4, 5 and 6 who are very good batsmen, who would otherwise bat at the top but because 1, 2 and 3 are occupied they are batting in the middle-order. We made a mistake by not having a proper No. 4 at the 2019 World Cup. If we had had a proper No. 4 for the World Cup then it might have been a completely different story,” Gavaskar told India Today.

“India’s top-3 batting lineup is such a fabulous batting lineup that often it has happened that numbers 4 and 5 at the initial stages of the World Cups haven’t got the opportunity to play long innings, to get their eye in.

“Suddenly when your top-3 are dismissed cheaply, and that can happen in the odd match, unfortunately for India, it has happened in a knockout game and that is where number 4, 5 and 6 haven’t been able to cope with the loss of your earlier prolific batsmen.

Suresh Raina, who recently called it a day from international cricket, also reckons that Rayudu was the best pick for India at the number four slot and even believes the Men in Blue would have won the World Cup if he had been picked.

“He was good at number four. If he was part of the squad for the World Cup, we would have won the tournament. Rayudu was the best choice and as it’s the way he plays the game in the CSK. And he was batting really well in the camp in Chennai,” Raina said.

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