Captains who led underdog teams to ICC World Cup glory

Over nearly five decades, the International Cricket Council (ICC) Men’s Cricket World Cup has experienced changing formats, fierce competition, and contentious controversies.

Ten countries will compete for the most coveted trophy in one-day international (ODI) cricket in the tournament’s 13th edition. Notably, for the first time, the marquee event will be hosted by two-time world champions, India, from October 5 to November 19.

Many teams have dominated the World Cup tournament especially the West Indies and Australia. West Indies won the first two World Cup tournaments almost one-sided. Then Australia began their reign of awesomeness, as they won the World Cup thrice in a row in 1999, 2003, and 2007.

On the other hand, there have been teams that have been underdogs, as there were not many expectations from them. Such teams often had very inspiring and commanding captains leading them to glory. Such Captains have brought glory to their teams and with this in mind, here are the skippers who led their underdog teams to World Cup glory in ODIs. 

Here are the captains who led underdog teams to ODI World Cup glory:

1. Kapil Dev (India)- 1983 World Cup

Kapil Dev

India had won only one match in the previous two ODI World Cups in 1975 and 1979, under the captaincy of Srinivas Venkatraghavan. When the 1983 World Cup came around, Indian players got a hang of one-day cricket. This caused the BCCI to send a young team led by a young 24-year-old, all-rounder Kapil Dev to the event. 

Kapil Dev led from the front as he picked the first fifer by an Indian in ODIs against Australia in the league stage. India defeated both Australia and West Indies in the league stage. But Kapil’s best came against Zimbabwe when his historic (175*) unbeaten knock helped India put up a decent total after recovering miraculously from 17/5 and then winning the match.

His leadership encouraged and inspired youngsters like Sandeep Patil, Syed Kirmani, Balwinder Sandhu, and others to give it their all. They shined in crunch matches like Patil scoring fifty against England in the semi-finals along with Yashpal Sharma and Sandhu dismissing Gordon Greenidge in the final at Lord’s. Kapil Dev inspired this young underdog team to an unexpected World Cup win in 1983.  

2. Imran Khan (Pakistan)- 1992 World Cup

Imran Khan. (Photo Source: ICC)

Imran Khan was coaxed out of his retirement from the game which he had taken in 1987, and was asked to captain the Pakistan side in the 1992 World Cup. He knew that if he led the Men in Green to victory, he could raise funds for the cancer hospital that he wanted to build in Pakistan. Imran came into the tournament with a shoulder injury and Pakistan struggled in practice games and the initial stages of the round-robin league.

They lost to West Indies by 10 wickets defending 220 runs, thereafter they were 74 all out against England before rain gods came to their rescue. However, this did not end their losing woes as they lost to India and South Africa.

But then Imran made his cornered tigers lift themselves after a speech and interestingly, the fortunes of the Men in Green took a mind-boggling turn. They defeated Australia, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand to make it into the semi-finals.

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Inzamam Ul Haq played a blinder and Javed Miandad took Pakistan into the finals.

England were dreaming of a World Cup win, but Imran Khan played his best knock of 72 in the final and then Wasim Akram took three wickets to break England’s back in the chase. Imran Khan led Pakistan to their only World Cup win thus far, which remains a great memory for the whole country. 

3. Arjuna Ranatunga (Sri Lanka)- 1996 World Cup

Sri Lanka were the co-host of the 1996 World Cup with India and Pakistan and before the tournament began, West Indies and Australia refused to travel to the island nation. They forfeited their games, effectively sending Sri Lanka into the quarter-finals without playing a game. 

Arjuna Ranatunga led the Sri Lankan team which was a mix of experience and youth. They had waded through controversies over Muralitharan’s action and were cash-strapped for most of the tournament. Sri Lanka were not considered worthy enough to win with top teams like Australia and West Indies leading that chart. 

But Sri Lanka didn’t lose in their group, defeating Zimbabwe, India, and Kenya, with walkovers from Australia and the West Indies. Then Sanath Jayasuriya hammered the England bowlers in the quarterfinals with 82 runs in 44 balls. Arjuna Ranatunga and his men were awarded the semi-final against India in Kolkata due to crowd rioting.

Consequently, they met Australia in the final and chose to chase despite knowing no team had won chasing in the final. Set 242 to win and losing both mercurial openers early, Aravinda de Silva played a dream knock and along with Asanka Gurusinha and Arjuna Ranatunga, took Sri Lanka to World Cup glory in Lahore.