The ODI World Cup 2023 is just around the corner, and the excitement of cricket enthusiasts is at an all-time high. It will be after a long gap of 13 years that the showpiece event will return to India. Notably, India emerged as the champion when the ICC event was last held in the subcontinent in 2011.
With the trend of hosts winning the 50-over World Cup since the last three editions, the Indian fans now have very high expectations from the Men in Blue and are anticipating an end to the nation’s decade-long ICC trophy drought. Many experts have also labelled India as the favourites in the marquee event. However, former England skipper Nasser Hussain thinks otherwise.
Nasser Hussain’s take on India being the favourites to win ODI World Cup 2023
In a recent interaction with Sky Sports, Nasser ruled out India as clear favourites and also provided a reason behind his take. The veteran English batter started by lauding India and highlighted that the team has two of the world’s best white-ball cricketers in the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
He further also talked about the inclusion of young batting sensation Shubman Gill and the return of Jasprit Bumrah in the squad, terming India’s line-up one of the best.
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Nasser Hussain’s explains why India are not the clear favourites
Nevertheless, in the later part of the conversation, Nasser explained why, despite such positives, India are not the clear favourite to lift the World Cup. He stressed on the Indian batter’s inability to bowl and the bowler’s inability to bat, indicating towards the lack of all-rounders in India’s World Cup squad.
“They’re favorites but they’re not clear favorites because of the amount of quality sides there are. If you look at their squad, they have two of the greatest white ball batters to ever play the game in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. They have a potential future great in Shubman Gill and Bumrah coming back is fantastic news. So if you look at their batting and bowling, it’s right up there among one of the best squads,” said Nasser.
“An area where they lack is if you look at the batters, they don’t bowl and the bowlers don’t bat. So the side has a different make-upto England and Australia with all the all-rounders,” he added.
Nasser Hussain’s big piece of advice for Team India
Apart from this, Nasser also advised India to play fearless cricket in the knockouts and learn from their past mistakes. He even predicted that India would surely make it to the semi-final and stated: “You could argue that there’s pressure all the time on Indian players. But where they have fallen short is the knockouts since the 2011 World Cup. They need to play above par, play fearless cricket. I think they will get to the knockout stage, but when they get to the semi-final, that’s when they need to play fearless cricket.”