On the night of November 18 two years ago, a billion Indian cricket fans went to sleep not just believing but knowingthat India would lift the 2023 World Cup at home.
They imagined crackers lighting up the sky, a sea of blue flooding India Gate, and a Monday that would feel anything but blue. They pictured revenge for 2003, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma holding the trophy together, and the long wait for an ICC title finally ending. A World Cup win at home after 12 long years felt inevitable.
Sadly, none of it came to pass. Sport can be cruel, and fate often chooses the biggest stage to drive that lesson home. For ten straight matches, India outplayed, overwhelmed, and dismantled every opponent, only to falter at the final hurdle. No one gave Australia a chance except Australia themselves. Few imagined India could lose, or that such a dominant campaign would come to such an abrupt, heartbreaking halt. “Dil toota hai Rohit Sharma ka” never resonated more. Two years on, it still does. That defeat continues to sting.
Even imagined why? India has since won a T20 World Cup away from home and a Champions Trophy. That’s two ICC titles in nine months. The dream of seeing Kohli and Rohit lift a World Cup together finally came true, and in the most emotional manner, as the two icons struggled to hold back tears, posed with the tricolour draped over their shoulders, and walked into retirement on a high. Even the legendary Rahul Dravid, who had once overseen India’s disastrous 2007 World Cup exit as captain, returned to the same country as a World Cup-winning coach. It felt complete. The Champions Trophy win in March of this year offered a similar closure, wiping away its own ghosts. But still, every time November 19 is mentioned, the memories come rushing back. For many, the silence that engulfed Ahmedabad that night is still louder than the roars of triumph in Barbados/Dubai. They say that for every November 19 there is a June 29, but don’t let them fool you. The two World Cups were poles apart.
And that’s why it still hurts. Still pricks. The images refuse to fade: KL Rahul sinking to his knees, Jasprit Bumrah wrapping an arm around a tearful Mohammed Siraj, Kohli hiding his face beneath his cap, and that haunting sight of a red-eyed Rohit shaking hands with the Australians before slipping into the dressing room without a single eye contact. Grown men were bawling that night. It was brutal. For an entire year, Rohit had spoken about the World Cup. Even after India lifted the Asia Cup just a month earlier, his mind was fixed on one goal. He had come agonisingly close, only for it to be ripped away by a night that simply wasn’t India’s.
Even 730 days later, the internet still can’t stop talking about it. “There will never be another October like October 2023”, “10 runs aa gaye the Rohit bhai“-these reels continue to pop up on Instagram every few scrolls. A home World Cup comes only once, maybe twice, in a player’s career. So when Kohli piled up 700-plus runs, overtook the great Sachin Tendulkar for the most ODI centuries, when Mohammed Shami produced that unforgettable seven-wicket spell against England, when India finally broke their New Zealand curse in the semi-final, and when the fielding medal ceremonies turned every match night into a mini-celebration, those two months felt like a nationwide festival. Naturally, everyone imagined the perfect ending. Or so they thought.
2003 vs 2023: Which one’s a bigger heartbreak?
Twenty-two years ago, India had lost another World Cup final to Australia, but that was a defeat many eventually learned to accept. It wasn’t easy, of course. India had begun the 2003 campaign shakily, scraping past the Netherlands and then getting thrashed by Australia. But after those early hiccups, Sourav Ganguly’s team became nearly unstoppable, until they ran into Ricky Ponting in Johannesburg on March 24.
Still, that loss was one the teenagers of that era could make peace with, simply because Australia was not just the best team of the World Cup but the decade Those 14-year-olds, now in their mid-thirties, watched the pattern break in 2023. This time, the best team in the world was outplayed by a side that had survived on luck and narrow escapes. Australia had lost to India and South Africa in their first two games, and were staring at elimination against Afghanistan before Glenn Maxwell single-handedly dragged them back from the brink.
Yes, India should have found more boundaries in those 97 balls. Travis Head shouldn’t have survived Bumrah and Shami’s vicious spells. This team deserved a different ending, one filled with celebration, not tears hidden away in a dressing room. India may win more World Cups in the years to come, but nothing will ever quite match the magic of 2023. Not every great story gets a perfect ending, but that doesn’t diminish the journey. India’s 2023 World Cup didn’t conclude the way it was meant to, but the memories from those two electrifying months will live on, even if it’s looked back at with a pinch of salt.