Former Pakistani all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez has stated that India were not brave in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final against Australia which was played at The Oval.
Hafeez, 42, believes that the problems started for India when they won the toss and decided not to start the game in a “brave” way.
“Winning the toss but not taking the brave way to start with is actually caused all the problems for @BCCI #WTC2023Final,” Hafeez wrote in a tweet.
It must be noted that Australia defeated India by 209 runs in the final of the World Test Championship on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 444 runs, India were bowled out for 234 runs in their second innings on the fifth day of the match.
The victory meant Australia had now captured the one major men´s cricket title that had previously eluded them.
But this result left India, defeated by New Zealand in the inaugural 2021 WTC final in Southampton, still searching for the first piece of global silverware in a decade.
Nathan Lyon and Scott Boland were the chief destroyers for Australia in the second innings with four and three wickets, respectively.
Indian batters got starts but none of them were able to stay at the wicket for a long period of time. Rohit Sharma (43) Virat Kohli (49) and Ajinkya Rahane (46) were the prominent contributors for India.
It must be noted that India’s last ICC trophy was in 2013 when they defeated England to win the ICC Champions Trophy.
Since then, India have lost either in a semi-final or a final of the ICC tournament.
- Mohammad Hafeez