The Indian cricket staff is perhaps No. 1 on the earth in all codecs however such a place within the ICC charts issues little to former batter Gautam Gambhir. With the mission for the Indian staff being lifting the ODI World Cup this yr, Gambhir believes that to win the showpiece occasion, the staff would wish to defeat Australia as they’ve a exceptional efficiency historical past in ICC occasions. Australia, being essentially the most profitable staff within the 50-over World Cup historical past, robotically begin as one of many favourites. Gambhir, nonetheless, is hopeful the Indian staff can get the higher of them.

Speaking in a particular present of Star Sports ‘Mission World Cup’, 2011 Cricket World Cup champion Gambhir highlighted the pivotal significance of defeating Australia within the event.

“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,” he added.

As far as country-wise winners are involved, Australia has received the ICC ODI World Cup trophy 5 instances, which makes them essentially the most profitable successful staff. West Indies and India observe them within the World Cup winners’ cricket ODI.

Both these groups have received the trophy twice every. England is the winner of the final World Cup event held in 2019 and is the trophy’s present champion.

“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 additional mentioned.

Former Australian batter Shane Watson additionally spoke on who he thinks will make it to the finals of the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023.

“Definitely going to back Australia with the calibre of players they have. They have got a few question marks going into this World Cup, for sure, with a few positions and some injuries they have had, but the players they have got, certainly know how to step up in these big games. And India, being at home, they’d know the conditions better than anyone, their bowlers are obviously on fire at the moment, with their quicks and also Kuldeep Yadav who is only getting better and better. So India with their firepower, especially with their top order in particular, certainly can go all the way. So for me, Australia and India would be an incredible final,” mentioned Watson.

India’s closing task earlier than the World Cup at house might be a three-ODI sequence towards Australia, with the primary match happening on Friday. After this, they are going to play WC warm-up video games towards England (September 30) and the Netherlands (October 3). India will then begin its World Cup marketing campaign on October 8 towards the Aussies at Chennai.

With ANI inputs

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)