Did Hardik Pandya's injury cost India the World Cup? Maybe.
The Men in Blue were short of genuine all-rounders in their pursuit of glory and Pandya's absence felt massive on a slow Ahmedabad track.
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Apart from Ravindra Jadeja, there were no genuine all-rounders in this team and that changed the dynamics of the squad. Suryakumar Yadav looked like a fish out of water and got caught behind while attempting to play his favourite spoon-shot. There were questions about his ODI credibility and the World Cup just fanned those once again.
Ravichandran Ashwin could have been an option, but the team management did not want to break the winning combination. Rightly so. It was a well-oiled machine and the juggernaut seemed unstoppable. But the defeat revealed the chinks in the armour. And one of them is the lack of a genuine batting allrounder.
In 2011, India had a certain Yuvraj Singh! This time, the stage was set for Hardik, but the untimely injury spelt doom.
Right from the 1975 world-dominating West Indies side to Pat Cummins' Australia, all sides boast of having true-blue all-rounders, who made the difference. TSN lists them out.
MORE: 'KL Rahul destroyed Indian innings'- Pakistan's Mohammad Amir on India's World Cup final loss to Australia
List: All all-rounders in Champion teams from 1975-2023
1975 (West Indies)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Bernard Julien | 5 | 48 | 10 |
| Viv Richards | 5 | 38 | 3 |
| Clive Lloyd | 5 | 158 | 3 |
1979 (West Indies)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Viv Richards | 4 | 217 | 3 |
| Collis King | 4 | 132 | 2 |
1983 (India)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Kapil Dev | 8 | 303 | 12 |
| Mohinder Amarnath | 8 | 237 | 8 |
| Madan Lal | 8 | 102 | 17 |
| Ravi Shastri | 5 | 121 | 4 |
1987 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Allan Border | 8 | 183 | 6 |
| Steve Waugh | 8 | 167 | 11 |
1992 (Pakistan)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Wasim Akram | 10 | 62 | 18 |
| Imran Khan | 8 | 185 | 7 |
| Aamer Sohail | 10 | 326 | 4 |
1996 (Sri Lanka)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Sanath Jayasuriya | 6 | 221 | 7 |
| Aravinda De Silva | 6 | 448 | 4 |
| Arjuna Ranatunga | 6 | 241 | 2 |
1999 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Steve Waugh | 10 | 398 | 3 |
| Tom Moody | 7 | 117 | 7 |
2003 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Andrew Symonds | 9 | 326 | 2 |
| Darren Lehmann | 10 | 224 | 8 |
2007 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Andrew Symonds | 9 | 189 | 3 |
| Shane Watson | 8 | 145 | 4 |
| Michael Clarke | 11 | 436 | 2 |
2011 (India)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Yuvraj Singh | 9 | 362 | 15 |
| Suresh Raina | 4 | 74 | 1 |
2015 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Glenn Maxwell | 8 | 315 | 6 |
| Michael Clarke | 7 | 219 | 1 |
| Shane Watson | 7 | 208 | 2 |
2019 (England)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Ben Stokes | 11 | 465 | 7 |
| Chris Woakes | 5 | 134 | 5 |
| Moeen Ali | 11 | 75 | 16 |
| Adil Rashid | 11 | 45 | 11 |
2023 (Australia)
| Player | Matches | Runs | Wickets |
| Glenn Maxwell | 9 | 400 | 6 |
| Pat Cummins | 11 | 128 | 15 |
| Marcus Stoinis | 6 | 87 | 4 |
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