Greatest playing XI featuring players who retired without a World Cup
Over the last few days, the exits of legendary players like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi etc. from the 2018 FIFA World Cup that is currently taking place in Russia have hogged the limelight. Both Ronaldo and Messi, who are arguably two of the greatest to have played the sport, are yet to win the tournament in spite of featuring in the tournament on four occasions.
Sometimes, sports can be cruel and the case is no different with cricket. A lot of legendary cricketers had to call it a day without winning the World Cup. Winning the World Cup is not an easy task and even the greatest cricketer to have played the sport, Sachin Tendulkar, took as many as six attempts to get his hands on the elusive trophy.
Unlike Sachin, there are a lot of great players who don't know how it feels to be a World Champion. Let us take a look at a playing XI comprising of the 11 greatest cricketers to have played the sport without winning a World Cup.
Note: Only players who have announced their retirement were considered. This piece revolves around the ODI format, not T20Is.
Openers - Tillakaratne Dilshan, Sourav Ganguly (c)
A lot of fantastic openers were unfortunate not to end up winning the ICC World Cup. The likes of Saeed Anwar, Herschelle Gibbs, Gary Kirsten etc. gave their everything but failed to get their hands on the most elusive trophy in cricket.
The openers in our XI will be India great Sourav Ganguly, who is also the captain of this side, and former Sri Lankan captain Tillakaratne Dilshan. Ganguly featured in three World Cup editions and led his team to the final in the 2003 edition, which is his best finish at a World Cup.
Dilshan, on the other hand, became a force to reckon with when he started to open the batting for Sri Lanka. The right-hander featured in three editions and ended up on the losing side in the final twice.
With a combined total of 21,653 runs, the duo can form a formidable opening combination in the ODI format.