Why did India lose the 2019 World Cup?

Since India lost the 2019 World Cup there has been some very detailed analysis to try and establish why India lost. India who finished top of the table at the end of the group stages but the team just did not perform in the final stages of the tournament and with Dhoni being run out everyone knew it was not going to be India’s year.

According to the Indian skipper, Sunil Gavaskar the India management team made a mistake by not committing to having a proper no.4 batsman. 

“What we need to look at is to have somebody at 4, 5 and 6 who are very good batsmen, who would otherwise bat at the top but because 1, 2 and 3 are occupied they are batting in the middle-order. We made a mistake by not having a proper No. 4 at the 2019 World Cup. If we had had a proper No. 4 for the World Cup then it might have been a completely different story,” Gavaskar said when interviewed. 

“India’s top-3 batting lineup is such a fabulous batting lineup that often it has happened that numbers 4 and 5 at the initial stages of the World Cups haven’t got the opportunity to play long innings, to get their eye in.

“Suddenly when your top-3 are dismissed cheaply, and that can happen in the odd match, unfortunately for India, it has happened in a knockout game and that is where number 4, 5 and 6 haven’t been able to cope with the loss of your earlier prolific batsmen.

Retired cricketer, Suresh Raina also reckons that Rayudu was the person to pick for the number 4 spot and would have resulted in India winning the tournament.

Raina was quoted saying “He was good at number four. If he was part of the squad for the World Cup, we would have won the tournament. Rayudu was the best choice and as it’s the way he plays the game in the CSK. And he was batting really well in the camp in Chennai,”