India ended their 28-year wait for an ODI World Cup when MS Dhoni marched the Men In Blue to the 2011 World Cup title, defeating Sri Lanka in the final at the Wankhede. The skipper himself added the finishing touch.
This also completed Sachin Tendulkar’s dream of winning the coveted World Cup trophy that he had been waiting for for 22 years since making his debut.
Many players were in their prime during that World Cup, thus a collective performance helped them win the trophy. Also, because several of them were in their thirties or approaching it, only a few of them are still playing international cricket.
In fact, only these three players from India’s 2011 World Cup-winning squad have not retired from international cricket yet:
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli was only 23 when he played in the 2011 World Cup and hit a century in the first game versus Bangladesh. He played a crucial knock of 35 runs in the final. Kohli went on to rule the cricketing world in the proceeding years with his bat and as India’s captain, and was the ICC Player Of The Decade.
At 33, the Delhi-born, despite having given up the captaincy job, has plenty of fire left in his tank.
Ravichandran Ashwin
With Harbhajan Singh as the first-choice off-spinner in the eleven, Ravichandran Ashwin only got to play two matches in the tournament. But, he played a significant role in the quarter-final versus Australia dismissing Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting.
After the World Cup, Ashwin then replaced Harbhajan as India’s premier off-spinner and was the main spinner across formats before being dropped from white-ball cricket in 2017. He continued his journey to becoming a legend in Test cricket and is now India’s second-leading Test wicket-taker.
Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla was a sort of surprise entry into India’s squad for the 2011 World Cup as he had featured in just one match in the two years preceding the tournament. But his leg spin was looked at as an X-factor for Indian conditions. He played in 3 matches in the World Cup, and picked 4 wickets but was on the expensive side. Chawla didn’t play an ODI for India after the World Cup.
Chawla played Test and T20I till 2012 before being dropped altogether from the national team. He hasn’t made any official retirement announcement and was part of the IPL until last year and continues to play domestic cricket.
