Where did it all go wrong for India at the World Cup?

India entered Sunday’s Cricket World Cup Final as heavy favourites having dominated every game they had played in the lead-up. 8 or so hours later, in a nearly empty Narendra Modi Stadium, incriminations began in earnest as Australia won their sixth, and possibly most impressive, World Cup trophy. So where did it all go wrong for India?

Far before the Final, back in the early stages of the lengthy group stage, India lost a key member of their squad with fast-bowling all-rounder Hardik Pandya going down with an ankle injury.

Pandya was a key cog in India’s middle order, offering a different option with the ball and a devastatingly destructive finisher with the bat. Losing him brought Mohammed Shami into the side who was nigh-on unplayable at times, but lengthened the tail significantly.

Many experts seemed to think the only route to victory for Australia was to bat first and back their batters to score bulk runs and hope batting got harder as the day went on. Pat Cummins won the toss and confounded everyone’s expectations and sent India in.

At first glance, India’s first 10 overs don’t seem bad, going at over seven runs an over for the loss of only two wickets. Australia on the other hand, were electric, with David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne throwing themselves about in the in-field. They set the tone from the go that they were there to win.

It’s hard to criticise Rohit Sharma for his efforts during the World Cup. He took it upon himself to set the tone in the first powerplay by going hard against the new ball. In the final, he was flying along having dispatched Glenn Maxwell for a four and six before going hard one too many times and getting spectacularly caught by Travis Head.

Hindsight is, of course, 20/20 (unlike this World Cup…), but it is still fair to say Rohit’s shot wasn’t the best. The intent makes sense, but he had already taken 10 from the over and didn’t to go again. If he had kept going, India would have been looking at a score well over 300.

There were many accusations of BBCI meddling in World Cup pitches, which we will ignore given the lack of evidence behind it. However, in this match, the pitch did seem to favour India’s strength, their two fantastic spinners, Jadeja and Yadav.

Perhaps, had Cummins chosen to bat first, the pitch would not have been so impactful as Jadeja and Yadav would’ve been bowling with a dry ball and could’ve extracted more movement off the pitch. Instead, it was the Aussies who were able to utilise the pitch to stifle any Indian aggression with smart, into-the-pitch bowling from the quicks and unerring accuracy from the spinners.

Following the loss of Shreyas Iyer in the 11th over, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul went into damage limitation mode, knowing the lack of batting behind them. They both batted well but lost their wickets at the wrong moment, falling for 54 and 66 respectively. Had one or both perhaps taken a risk earlier and scored even 20-30 runs, the game could’ve looked very different.

Ravindra Jadeja is one of the greatest all-rounders in cricketing history, but asking him to come in at six in a World Cup final to shield Suryakumar Yadav, is perhaps a sign India were unprepared for a scenario where they lost wickets early and often.

Suryakumar Yadav has emerged over the past few years as one of the most destructive T20 batters in the world. Despite that, he has never quite cracked ODI cricket. He wasn’t sure whether to stick or twist in the final, falling for a tame 18 from 28 balls and exposing the bowlers far earlier than would be ideal.

For the first time in the tournament, India took the ball out of Mohammed Siraj’s hand at the start of the innings. Shami bowled very well, certainly no fault to him, but no one in this Indian side can ride the emotion of a crowd like Siraj. An early wicket for him could have seen one of those adrenaline-pumping spells that Siraj is known for.

Following his world-class catch to dismiss Rohit, Travis Head stood up and was counted in Australia’s chase. He reigned in his natural aggression early in the innings when wickets were falling at the other end and Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were bowling with pace and nip and accuracy. After that, he exploded, finishing with 137 runs from 120 balls.

Marnus wasn’t in Australia’s initial World Cup squad, but following some excellent innings against South Africa, the selectors’ hands were forced. Labuschagne batted beautifully, soaking up the strike when it seemed like every ball could take a wicket. He was the perfect foil for Travis Head, blunting any chance India had to win.

It’s impossible to quantify, but it’s entirely possible the weight of expectation proved too much for India in the end. Despite their dominance all tournament, come the final, it perhaps became overwhelming. It is impossible to imagine having 1.4 billion fans expecting a win, and succumbing to pressure would be completely expected.