Suresh Raina names India's standout players from World Cup

Suresh Raina. Pic/AFP

India may have stumbled at the final hurdle, but the ICC World Cup 2023 was a great campaign for the two-time winners and they gained many things from this, says former India star Suresh Raina.

In this superb campaign, the players that impressed the former India star the most was middle-order batter KL Rahul and Mohammed Shami.

Raina, who said the Indians failed to put pressure on the Australians after reducing them to 47/3, said the reason for the Indian bowlers failing to capitalise on that situation was that the batters could only put up 240 runs on the board.

"From an Indian perspective, I was very impressed with K.L Rahul but Mohammed Shami was my player of the tournament. The way he bowled against New Zealand and throughout the whole World Cup, he just went bang, bang, bang," he wrote in his column for the ICC website.

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Raina also praised Rohit Sharma's captaincy for India's superb performance in the World Cup.

"I thought Rohit Sharma's captaincy was fantastic too. He looked very solid in his planning, decision-making, approach and execution. He looked like a proper leader.

"Like MS Dhoni before him, he brought a team together and they played excellently. I don't know if Rohit will play in the next 50-over World Cup, he might play in the T20 World Cup, but he really wanted to win the World Cup for the whole country. But God planned something else," he said.

Raina said that the Indians performed brilliantly throughout the ICC World Cup 2023 except for the final.

"It's very disappointing because they did so well in every department before the final. There were still some great moments, not least Virat scoring his 50th century in front of his idol, Sachin Tendulkar. We will see the Indian team doing well again because they know how to reach the latter stages of tournaments now. It just takes a bit of time to understand how to manage those pressure situations, especially when you're at home," wrote Raina.

"Sometimes when there's a lot of pressure you can lose your focus, and I think that's a lesson they will learn from this. Despite the disappointment, there's no doubt that this event has truly captured the hearts of the nation. New records have been set in stadium attendance, broadcast viewership and digital engagements, making this truly the biggest ICC Men's Cricket World Cup ever. In four years' time, all eyes will be on hosts South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, and it will be great to see new teams come through like we've seen with Afghanistan in recent years," he said.

(With agency inputs)