Mohammad Kaif's comments, where he called 'India strong paper' despite their World Cup final defeat to Australia, touched a nerve with the Australians as David Warner gave the former batter a piece of his mind with a heavy 'perform when it matters' reply. However, it seems as if Kaif is not backing down either. India's hero of the 2002 Natwest Trophy final has shared another post after Warner's retort, where he has explained his previous claim with a series of 'facts'.
"It was Australia's day in final, they won, they are World Cup winners. More facts: India comprehensively won 10 games, they lost 11th, they had the best bowlers and batters. They were the tournament's best team. Both facts, on paper and on field. Relax Australia," read Kaif’s latest post on X.
India were arguably the best team of the tournament steamrolling all nine of the opponents in the league stage to finish atop the points table. They even avenged their 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat against the New Zealand by defeating them in the first knockouts game at Mumbai to qualify for their fourth World Cup final. But come the summit clash, Australia were unstoppable, outplaying India in all three departments to not only win the contest by 6 wickets but do it with six wickets remaining. That Australia was the better team on the day that mattered the most clearly divided opinions, leading to the Warner-Kaif X saga.
{{/usCountry}}India were arguably the best team of the tournament steamrolling all nine of the opponents in the league stage to finish atop the points table. They even avenged their 2019 World Cup semi-final defeat against the New Zealand by defeating them in the first knockouts game at Mumbai to qualify for their fourth World Cup final. But come the summit clash, Australia were unstoppable, outplaying India in all three departments to not only win the contest by 6 wickets but do it with six wickets remaining. That Australia was the better team on the day that mattered the most clearly divided opinions, leading to the Warner-Kaif X saga.
{{/usCountry}}"I can never accept that the best team has won the World Cup. The Indian team is the best team on paper," Kaif had said on Star Sports, to which Warner did hold back. "I like MK, issue is it does not matter what’s on paper. At the end of the day, you need to perform when it matters. That’s why they call it a final. That’s the day that counts and it can go either way, that’s sports. 2027 here we come," said the Australia opener.
And rightly so. India have lost only four matches out of 24 across the last three editions of the ODI World Cups, and three of those defeats have come in the knockouts – in 2015 semi-final against Australia, in 2019 semi-final against New Zealand and now in the 2023 final. For 10 years now, India have failed to conquer the entire knockouts, a fact that has added to both the team’s and fans' frustration.
While Kaif might have a point in his assessment of things, Michael Vaughan's hot take on the matter, created ripples. "Usually, the tournaments best team lift the trophy at the end of the event," said the former England captain, taking a dig at Kaif, who was part of India's World Cup squad in 2003 which lost to Australia in the final.
Kaif has however won an ICC title with the senior team when India were declared joint-winners of the 2002 Champions Trophy and two years before that as captain of the India Under-19 team.