After the Champions Trophy 2013, India saw everything, from group-stage exits to reaching the finals of the ICC tournaments, but still were not able to lift any of the trophies.
Despite reaching four semifinals, and four finals in the last decade, India are yet to win an ICC championship.
This is the fifth time that the Indian team have reached the finals, and there could not be a better set-up than this one, considering the fact that the World Cup is happening in India, the team is just one step away from lifting that trophy in front a packed Narendra Modi Stadium.
Rohit Sharma and his men have dominated in this tournament and have reached the final with ten wins on the trot, one of them being the semifinal against the Kiwis.
Be it their batting or their bowling, they have been nothing short of outstanding throughout the tournament with complete teamwork.
Virat Kohli is doing what he does and has smashed over 700 runs in just ten games.
On the other hand, Shreyas Iyer, against all the odds, has notched up 526 runs as well.
When it comes to bowling, India never had this sort of bowling attack the way Indian seamers are bowling in the powerplay, and the seam positioning they have is what helps them pick early wickets.
However, the man who missed out on the 2011 World Cup winning team, Rohit Sharma, he himself would not have thought of leading the Indian side into the final of the World Cup 12 years later.
He has not only led the team into the finals but the way he is attacking at the top is setting the tone for other batters to take time if there’s a collapse.
India may have been the best team in the tournament having won ten games on the trot, but will India continue their winning spree, or will the eleventh hour introduce an unexpected twist to the tale?
Well, the Kangaroos will do anything to make that happen as the Australian captain is looking to silence the 1.3 Lakh fans in the stadium, as he said in the press conference.
With the likes of Travis Head, David Warner and Mitchell Marsh at the top, the Aussies have the ability to play fearless cricket in the first few overs and put pressure on the Indian side.
When it comes to the middle-order, Steve Smith, one of the greatest batters in modern cricket, who is known to deliver on important occasions, can be frowning for the Indian captain.
During the IPL 2023, the Australian all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh, said that Australia would be unbeaten in the World Cup and would be scoring 450 against the Indian team in the final.
He was right about playing the Indian side in the finals but seems like he was wrong about his team staying unbeaten as it’s the other way around.
Here are some stats related to the Narendra Modi Stadium (last 5 ODI’s)
| Win Batting first | 2 times |
| Win Batting second | 3 times |
| Highest total | 286 Australia |
| Average first innings total | 237 |
| Average second innings total | 208 |
Both teams have the perfect set of combinations and would be putting everything on the line for this game, which will eventually make this game a treat for the cricket lovers. But considering the form of the Indian players and familiar conditions, the men in blue have an edge over the men in yellow. Even in the recent three-match bilateral series, India won two of them and the league game in this tournament as well.
With 1.5 billion Indians, including the 1.3 lakh in the stadium, the Australian team will be under immense pressure. The chance of India winning the World Cup for the third time looms, and historical echoes murmur in the breeze. At this moment, every heartbeat will resonate with the collective desire of a cricket-crazy nation, eagerly awaiting the fulfilment of a dream, and that dream will be the Indian team lifting the World Cup after 12 years.
Of course, in Ravi Shastri’s voice!
