ICC World Cup 2019
Part 17 - Dream of 130 crores
Read previous post of this blog series. Please check the below links
India, worlds 7th biggest country and worlds 2nd populated country. Once it was ruled by British people. Because of them only cricket started to grow in India. England may be the inventor of cricket. But in India people see cricket as a religion and Sachin as their god of cricket. Having more than 100 crore people they are struggling to achieve in other games and athletes. But when its cricket they all together and support their nation. If their players failed in tournaments they used to express their feeling in an unacceptable way. That much of love they showed on cricket. In each and every street we can see boys playing cricket with local rules. Its just because of the only man and his team Kapil Dev. The name itself enough to say what he achieved. He just sow a seed, now it became a banyan tree and Indian cricket team is one of the strongest team in the world. In this post we will discuss about their world cup history and how they built such a strong team, who are all the contributors and their squad for world cup 2019.
World Cup Journey:
1975 - League stage
1979 - League stage
1983 - Champions
1987 - Semi finals
1992 - League stage
1996 - Semi finals
1999 - Super Six
2003 - Runner Up
2007 - Group Stage
2011 - Champions
2015 - Semi finals
Indian team were the kiddo at the time of playing first two world cups at England in 1975 and 1979. In 1975 they left in group stage itself. But they registered their first world cup victory against East Africa by 10 wickets. In 1979 world cup they didnt won not even a single game at league round. Moreover they lost to Srilankan team, that is the first ever world cup appearance and first ever win for Srilanka.
1983 the most important year for Indian cricket. The team played the tournament under the captaincy of Kapil Dev. In first match itself they beat the strongest defending champions West Indies and grabs the attention of cricket fans towards them. Since it is a round robin method West Indies beat them in second round. Still India qualified for playing Semi finals by beating Zimbabwe twice and Australia once in this stage. In semi they beat England by 6 wickets and entered finals. Again they faced the defending champions West Indies there. India lose all of their wickets and scored only 183 runs. Everyone thought that West Indies going to became champions for third time. But Indians excellent bowling and fielding restrict West Indies to 140 runs and lift the Prudential Cup. Entire world saw India at that time, because beating West Indies was not at all easy at that time. Its like Bangladesh beating Australia at the starting of 2000's.
With this unforgettable moment India faced 1987 world cup. This time India lost at semi finals against the same England which they beat at 1983 semi finals. In 1992 first time they played world cup at Australia. This year lot of matches was affected by rain and DL method. That rule made India to lost against Australia by 1 run difference. India won against Pakistan only in this tournament. Remember Pakistan is the champion of 1992 world cup. This year world cup 2019 going to happen based on the round robin method which was practiced during 1992 wc.
After the retirement of legends like Kapil Dev and Gavaskar. India played the 1996 world cup under the captaincy of young Mohammed Azharuddin along with master Sachin Tendulkar. But they lost to Srilanka in semi finals at Eden garden. Once India were at strong position at chasing but within 22 runs they lost 7 wickets, because of that fans throw plastic bottles in the ground and the play was stopped Umpires declared Srilanka won that match. In 1999 world cup once again they played at England. This time India created many records like Dravid's best knock, Sachin's century against kenya and Ganguly's 183 against Srilanka. But they lost against Zimbabwe at left the tournament in Super Six stage.
After 1999 world cup a major blew hit on Indian cricket. Many experienced players faced ban due to match fixing. Then India made Sourav Ganguly as captain for 2003 world cup. He is the biggest reason for current Indian team form. If kohli getting the success because of Dhoni's team build effort. Then Dhoni received the fruit from the tree which was sown by Kapil. Kapil sowed a good seed but Ganguly saved it from draught, cyclone and make it enough to became a tree and Dhoni made it biggest tree and ate the first fruit. Till today 2003 is the best team for India in world cup. In South African pitch the tigers lost only 2 matches. Unfortunately both matches lost against Australia including world cup finals. Sachin Tendulkar scored 673 runs in that tournament which is the highest total scored by a batsman in a world cup till now. Even the skipper Sourav Ganguly scored 3 centuries in that tournament and Ashish Nehra took best figures in world cup for India against England 6 for 23.
2007 world cup was a bad dream for both India and Pakistan. In first match itself India lost to Bangladesh. But bounce back against Bermuda by scoring their first 400+ runs. Third match lost against Srilanka which makes them out of tournament. Once again fans started to scold them and thrashed their cut out and players home. But wounded tigers are always dangerous. BCCI made MS Dhoni as a surprising captain and his first mission itself to win ICC world T20. MSDhoni accomplished the mission. With that hope many young players came into team like Kohli, Raina, Munaf. 2011 world cup held at India, Bangladesh and Srilanka. India creates a new record of first team to win world cup at home. They met Srilanka at finals, Gambhir and Dhoni takes India home. Particularly Dhoni's finishing six was the best moment in world cup till now. India dedicated that world cup to Sachin who played for the nation nearly 24 years.We will discuss about all world cups in seperate post.
India faced the 2015 world cup as defending champions. After the retirement of Sachin and Sehwagh India found a good opening partners Shikar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. As expected India beat all the teams in their group and finishes top. In quarter finals they faced Bangladesh and easily won that match. But they lost to Australians at semifinals. Australia took revenge for the loss of 2011 world cup quarter finals against India.
India Squad for World cup 2019:
As a result of 4years analysis BCCI revealed the squad for 2019 world cup. It is a 15 member team was lead by Virat Kohli. Rohit Sharma continues as vice captain for India. Eventhough Kohli is official captain, MS Dhoni is there behind the stumps to take decisions. He is also the senior most player in the team, playing in his last world cup. Lot of chances are there for his retirement at the end of this tournament. A lot of controversy came after the announcement of squad. Apart from the 15, they added 4 reserve players who are going to England along with them. Lets see in next post how the squad will be? what is the best XI for play? What Kohli should do as a captain? What are the common mistakes done by Indian captain during match? and the chances of India to lift the world cup 3rd time next to Australia.
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