Considering the start India have gotten in their 2023 World Cup campaign, with 4 wins in 4 games, and two of those victories coming against strong teams in Pakistan and Australia, the 1.5 billion fans in India and across the world are dreaming once again of India lifting the World Cup trophy.
Fans are hoping that the team will end their decade-long drought of an ICC trophy. More so the confidence comes from the fact that the last three ODI World Cups have been won by the home side, including India in 2011 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
To remain optimistic, fans are also keen on finding similarities in India and players’ performances in 2011 World Cup and World Cup 2023.
Here are 3 notable similarities between India’s campaigns in 2023 World Cup and 2011 World Cup:
Five bowlers taking 2 wickets each against Pakistan
This similarity is perhaps the most astonishing one. In the 2011 World Cup, India met Pakistan in the semi-final in Mohali and won the match by 29 runs. In that game, five different bowlers -Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra, Munaf Patal, and Yuvraj Singh – took two wickets each.
This is exactly how the wickets were distributed during the IND vs PAK match in the World Cup 2023 in Ahmedabad with Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Ravindra Jadeja, and Hardik Pandya all taking 2 wickets each.
Beat Australia in a run-chase
As it happened in the 2011 World Cup, India defeated Australia in a run-chase in the 2023 World Cup as well.
Then, that match happened in Ahmedabad at what was previously known as the Motera Stadium, India restricted Australia to 260 runs, which Australia made courtesy of captain Ricky Ponting’s century. In the chase, Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, and Yuvraj Singh hit half-centuries to win the game by 5 wickets in hand.
Recently, in Chennai, India were given a target of 200 runs which they chased down with 6 wickets in hand with the help of 97* from KL Rahul and 85 from Virat Kohli.
Virat Kohli smashed a century against Bangladesh
Then he was a 21-year-old emerging cricketer; now he’s a well-established legend. Virat Kohli has 3 centuries in ODI World Cup – two of which came against Bangladesh.
In his first match in the 2011 World Cup, vs Bangladesh in Mirpur, Kohli scored 100* runs in 83 balls. Recently, against Bangladesh in Pune, Kohli scored 103* runs in 97 balls.
