World Cup 2023: Five players from 2019 who can play the tournament and win it for India
The 12th edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup may have ended in disappointment for India, but there are lots of positives that one can take away from the long tournament.
India entered the World Cup as one of the pre-tournament favorites, and they rightly lived up to the hype for most parts of the tournament. As Virat Kohli mentioned, 45 minutes of bad cricket cost them the semi-final against New Zealand.
India played dominant cricket throughout the tourney, and even when the other side had their noses in front, the Indian bowlers brought the team back into the game. Except for a league game against England, and the knockout one against the Kiwis, India dominated their other opponents. Quite fittingly, those were the teams that made it to the finals.
The next ICC WC is set to happen in India in the year 2023. If history is to repeat itself then, as the host country, India should win it as the hosts have won the last three editions; but that is still too far into the future.
In this article, we will look at five players from the 2019 WC squad for India who might realistically still be around 2023, and potentially win it for the Men in Blue.
Honorable mentions
KL Rahul- (Age 31-2023)
KL Rahul has all the talent in the world but has so far not fulfilled his true potential. He had a decent ICC WC 2019, but we will have wait and see if he will be a regular feature in the team four years hence.
Kuldeep Yadav (Age 28-2023) and Yuzvendra Chahal (Age 33-2023)
Indian team had invested a lot in these two wrist-spinners and despite a mixed World Cup, the duo have been sensational. The 2023 edition is set to happen in India, and India has no dearth of talent in terms of spinners. So it will interesting to see if these two can stick around till then.
Ravindra Jadeja (Age 34 -2023)
Ravindra Jadeja was a livewire on the field in the tournament even when he was not part of the playing XI and is possibly in the best form of his life.
He almost single-handedly won India the semi-final. If he is still around in 2023, it will be interesting to see how much he has maintained his fitness and attributes that make him a top cricketer right now.