MS Dhoni’s Team India became the first team to win an ODI World Cup on its home soil when the Ranchi-born skipper launched Nuwan Kulasekara over long-on to send the country into a pandemonium mode; Ravi Shastri’s iconic commentary was the cherry on the cake. All the 15 players in India’s World Cup 2011-winning squad got to play at least two matches in the tournament. However, most of their careers ended in just a few years after that due to age of form.
3 Players From India’s World Cup 2011 Squad Who Have Not Retired:
A 23-year-old rookie then, Virat Kohli slammed a century in his maiden ODI World Cup 2011 match, versus Bangladesh and played a crucial knock of 35 runs in the final. He scored a total of 282 runs in 9 World Cup matches then.
Now, Kohli achieved greatness in the past decade and is hailed as arguably the greatest all-format batsman. He’s recently left or sacked the captaincy across formats but continues to be a key batter.
Ravichandran Ashwin
With Harbhajan Singh being India’s first-choice off-spinner, Ravichandran Ashwin got to play in only 2 World Cup 2011 matches, but he made his impact in the quarterfinal against Australia, picking up wickets of Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting.
Soon after, Ashwin then replaced Harbhajan as India’s premier off-spinner in the last decade. The Tamil Nadu spinning all-rounder has etched his place in Indian folklore, especially with his records in Test cricket. Ashwin remains India’s first-choice off-spinner in Test cricket.
Piyush Chawla
Piyush Chawla got chances in three World Cup 2011 matches, wherein he picked up 4 scalps. However, he was never selected in the ODI team and played his last Test and T20Is in 2012. The senior leg-spinner continued to be picked up in the IPL till 2021 and also is a regular in white-ball domestic matches.
