Best XI from the ODI World Cup winning Indian squads

Indian teams have won the Cricket World Cup twice in 1983 and 2011 under the leadership of Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni respectively. Both the captains are considered legends now as the latter is still playing the game but is not leading the team anymore. He passed the baton to Virat Kohli earlier this year and decided to contribute as a player. Kapil was exceptional during India’s least expected triumph in 1983 when they defended 183 against the likes Clive Lloyd and his men who were defending champions.

In the 20th century, ODI cricket was played in a 60-over per innings format and the fact that Indian cricket was re-born after creating history still thrills any die-hard fan. But the glory eluded the Men in Blue for next 28 years until 2011 when  Dhoni launched a magnificent six over long-off in style and brought the cup back to the country at the very own Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. However, Sourav Ganguly had led the Indian team to the final in 2003 but Australia got better of them when it mattered the most.

There were many heroes in both the Indian squads who made the country proud by winning the pinnacle event. A stupendous knock of 175 from Kapil against Zimbabwe is still the talk of the town when it comes to one of the best comebacks in cricket. Also, the fighting knock of Gautam Gambhir in the final against Sri Lanka is rated as one of the best innings of his career. Many players also played a crucial role when it came to seizing the key moments during some nail-biting contests.

So we have combined the best XI from both the squads. Though some of the big names are missing, those who feature will always be remembered in Indian cricket history.

Sachin Tendulkar

The master of the game, Sachin Tendulkar, who served Indian cricket for almost 24 years of his life, would walk into any side anytime in the history of the game. His journey between the 22-yards has been exceptional and is the lone player to complete a century of centuries across formats. The little man from Mumbai lived the dream and achieved it with some pleasant performances in the tournament.

He was excellent during the winning spree in World Cup 2011 and had scripted a couple of wins on his own. He amassed 482 runs in the event in 9 matches with an amazing average of 53.55 and also scored two centuries along with the same number of half-centuries.