NEW DELHI: Former Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir on Friday said that winning the cricket World Cup requires overcoming Australia, given their outstanding track record in ICC events.
In a conversation with Star Sports, Gambhir emphasised the critical significance of securing victory against Australia in the mega tournament.
“Look, I have always said this, and there is no doubt in this, that if you want to win the World Cup, then you have to beat Australia. In 2007 when we won the World Cup, we defeated Australia in the semifinal. In 2011 when we won the World Cup, we beat Australia in the quarterfinal. Australia is the strongest team in any ICC tournament. Remove the ranking, the ranking does not matter,” Gambhir said.
Australia have the highest number of
ICC ODI World Cup
title wins, having clinched the coveted trophy five times, solidifying their status as the most successful team in the tournament’s history.
Following closely behind, West Indies and India have both secured the trophy twice each during past competitions.
The current defending champions are England, who emerged victorious in the 2019 World Cup.
“You can be in any position in the rankings, but Australia, when it comes to those big tournaments, the World Cups, I think Australia has got the players, they have got the self-belief, Australia has the ability to play those big moments really well. And you can see this, the two World Cups that India won, we had to beat Australia in the knockout stage two times. And the World Cups that we have lost, in 2015 we lost to Australia. So I believe that if we have to win the World Cup this year, Australia is going to be the most important game, and we start against Australia, so there is nothing better than that. So beating Australia is very, very important,” Gambhir further said.
India will kick off their World Cup campaign on October 8 against Australia in Chennai.
