Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has reacted to India's performance against Australia in the ICC Men's ODI World Cup 2023 final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The Indian commentator reckons that Team India would have played a different brand of cricket altogether against Australia if it was a league stage.

Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins

Team India set up a target of 241 for the Aussies in the final. Aussies had early hiccups when they were reeling at 41/3 but despite the pressure, they found a great deal of support in the form of Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne as the duo helped the team get past the finishing line. 

Travis Head stole the spotlight after he scored a match-winning century in the final. With this special win in the epic encounter, Australia decorated their trophy cabinet by winning as many as six ODI World Cups, the most by a team in the history of the competition. 

“I’ve been focusing a lot on the difficulty factor, the slow pitch, and how difficult it was for KL Rahul and the others to get a move on because they didn’t have any wickets left in the bag. Just imagine this game was a league match between Sri Lanka and India; would India have taken that risk? Maybe yes, that is where perhaps temperament comes in, and maybe if it was a league match, India would have played differently," Manjrekar added during a discussion on Star Sports.

Manjrekar added that the batting depth was not there once India lost three wickets in the first eleven overs. After losing three wickets, India literally slowed down as they lacked the bravery to take risks as the game progressed. 

“Well, India had certain limitations that they had covered beautifully throughout the tournament, with Jadeja at number 7 and their batting finishing at number 6. So India felt the pressure of not having depth; you know, those little chinks in India’s armour came to the fore. The batting depth wasn’t there, and you saw the way KL Rahul played a bulk of the innings with the knowledge that there isn’t much batting to come," he added.