'A blunder': Sanjay Manjrekar opens up on India's ODI WC 2023 loss, reflects on how pitch impacted the final
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar recently came forward and gave his take on the Indian team's loss in the ODI World Cup 2023 final, talking about the 'blunder' in pitch curation that led to the loss.
The Indian team has been one of the most dominant sides in world cricket of late, from winning the T20 World Cup 2024 and the Champions Trophy 2025. With several accolades in the last few years, one of the biggest heartbreaks for the Men in Blue has been the loss in the ODI World Cup 2023 final.
Taking on Australia in the final at the Narendra Modi Stadium, thousands of fans were left silenced as India experienced arguably their biggest cricketing heartbreak in 20 years.
Speaking of the game against Australia, former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar took centre stage and opined that it was a blunder on the part of team India with the pitch that they had in play in Ahmedabad in the final.
“I was very proud of that Indian team that played in the 2023 ODI World Cup because it looked like the best team in the world. India, with Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid, tried to control things off the field a little too much. The pitch they chose was a blunder. We saw that batters like Suryakumar Yadav are not the same when the pace is taken off on a slow pitch,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on JioHotstar’s ‘Rise of Champions’ episode.
Hayden gave his take on India’s loss in the final as well
Furthermore, former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden came forward and talked about how losing the ODI World Cup 2023 final in Ahmedabad was a huge national setback for the Indian team.
“Everyone just celebrated that India would win easily at home. They forgot it is a sports field and there are two teams racing. One was better prepared. They are a dominant team, but losing the World Cup at home is a huge loss. I don't know how you move on from that. With 1.4 billion people, you should beat anyone on the planet,” Hayden said.
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