ICC Cricket World Cup 2011: India waited 28 years to finally lift the Cricket World Cup Trophy in 2011. 2nd April 2021 marks the 10 years of completion of the that special win for India. MS Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir were the architects of the final who scored 91 and 97 runs respectively. But did you know, that the eleven who played in the World Cup final never played together ever again after that match.
Gautam Gambhir in a recent interview with PTI said that Harbhajan Singh once mentioned to him about his fact. He said, ““I know that’s probably the worst thing. Bhajji once told me that. Probably the better person to ask the question is the erstwhile coach (Duncan Fletcher who took over immediately after Gary Kirsten’s exit at the end of the World Cup), the captain (MS Dhoni) and the selectors (K Srikkanth and others).”
Gambhir went on to say that probably such a thing never happened before in cricket. He said: “I don’t think this has happened in international ODI cricket history that a team that won a World Cup never played a single match together again.”
Post 2011 World Cup, India struggled to find the form that they were in during the World Cup. India travelled to England for a Test series and were whitewashed 4-0. India travelled to Australia, later in the year. Even in Australia, India lost 4-0.
Here’s a look at India’s team that played in the WC final: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni (c & wk), Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, S Sreesanth