A fresh warning from Sunil Gavaskar before India's 'inconsequential' World Cup match vs. the Netherlands
The record-equalling century of Virat Kohli, followed by a memorable five-wicket haul, sealed Team India's comfortable win over South Africa at the One Day International World Cup on Sunday. Extending their unbeaten run to eight matches at the ICC World Cup 2023, Rohit Sharma and Co. secured the top spot in the round-robin phase of the tournament. With India ready to enter the semi-final stage of the 50-over spectacle, batting legend Sunil Gavaskar reflected on India's impressive campaign in the league phase.
Gavaskar said, “You want to be the champions; you want to make sure that you win big. You want to show that you are the best team in the competition by a long distance, and that's exactly what the Indian team is doing at the moment. There is a match against the Netherlands that might be inconsequential because India is only now number one. But they don't want to stumble anywhere once it comes to the knock-out stages.”
Gavaskar further said that “the whole temperament, your whole mental attitude towards the match will change because in the group stage you always think, Oh, there's another match to come. But there is no next day if you have a bad day in the knockouts. So you want to get into that winning rhythm. You want to get into that winning mentality, and that's what the Indian team is doing.”