‘India can lose final…:’ Yuvraj Singh warns Rohit Sharma-led side ahead of World Cup final clash vs Australia

Less than 24 hours are left to witness the World Cup 2023 final clash between India and Australia at Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. The teams that started their ICC World Cup 2023 campaign by facing each other, will now complete this edition by playing the final on Sunday (19 November 2023). 

Ahead of the nerve-racking final, former Indian batter Yuvraj Singh has warned the Rohit Sharma-led side that they can lose against the five-time World Cup winners by their own mistakes.

Speaking to Aaj Tak, He says, “the only reason that India can lose this final is by their own mistakes. Fortunately, there hasn’t been major mistakes made from the team. I hope the unfortunate thing of India making mistakes does not take place tomorrow.”

“But I feel India is very high on confidence, everybody is performing but the problem is they’re facing Australia, the team that knows how to handle World Cup pressure,” he further said. 

Yuvraj also shed light upon Aussie Captain Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc. “ In their last match against South Africa, all the batters were out, but Cummins and Starc absorbed the pressure as batsmen. They didn’t hit big shots and kept on rotating strike, waited till the end and secured a win from the match.”

The 41-year-old also makes an interesting point about India playing in a similar way like Australia did back in 2003.  “We also played well but Australia was dominating the whole tournament in 2003. In the final, we lost against Australia. But in this World Cup, India is dominating and Australia, that didn’t start on a winning note, have played exceptionally well and reached the finals. 

India has remained unbeaten throughout the marquee tournament so far by clinching ten wins in a row. Whereas Australia had a rough start to the campaign by experiencing two defeats against India and South Africa. But after that, the Pat Cummins-led side proved their worth and earned eight wins in a row. 

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishan Kishan, Prasidh Krishna, Suryakumar Yadav.

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.