World Cup Cricket since its inception in the year 1975 includes India as one of its participant teams .As the biggest tournament of One-Day international format, the World Cup Cricket was first held in the year 1975 in England. Since then, India has participated in all the editions of the tournament and has also become the winner in two occasions, in 1983 and in 2011. India in World Cup Cricket has always shown great performances and was part of some of the greatest matches in World Cup history.World Cup Cricket, 1975
In the inaugural edition of the World Cup Cricket in 1975, India was placed along with the teams like England, New Zealand and East Africa in a group. India played its first match in World Cup against England and miserably lost the match by a huge margin of 202 runs. In the next match, it comfortably defeated the East Africa side by a huge margin of 10 wickets. However, as it failed to beat New Zealand in its last group match, it could not enter into the next round of the tournament. That was the end of India's campaign in the World Cup Cricket, 1975.
World Cup Cricket, 1979
In the second edition of World Cup Cricket, 1979 that was also held in England, India put on a worse performance. India was placed in a group, along with the defending champions, West Indies, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. India once again started the tournament in a disastrous manner, as it lost its first match against West Indies by a huge margin of 9 wickets. India once again lost to the New Zealand team in the second match by a huge margin of 8 wickets. India then faced the biggest humiliation in its last group match against Sri Lanka, the then minnows of World Cricket. It failed to achieve an easy target of 238 runs set by Sri Lanka and eventually lost the match. The World Cup Cricket, 1979 is considered as the worst World Cup for India.
World Cup Cricket, 1983
However, the scenario changed entirely in the World Cup Cricket, 1983 and India played great Cricket in that tournament. India started the tournament in a group comprising the other teams like Zimbabwe, West Indies and Australia. India stunned everyone by beating the formidable West Indies team by 34 runs in its opening match and then beat the weaker team Zimbabwe by 5 wickets in the second match. India won 4 of its group matches in the tournament, while losing two. In the knock-out level, India beat the England team in the Semi-Final by a margin of 6 wickets and went on to meet West Indies in the Final. The Final of World Cup Cricket, 1983 is considered as a classic One-Day match. After being bowled out for a mere 183 runs, India successfully restricted the West Indies team to only 140 and thus clinched the coveted championship title in the World Cup Cricket, 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev.
World Cup Cricket, 1987
World Cup Cricket moved out of England for the first time in 1987, with India and Pakistan co-hosting this edition of the World Cup. Indian Cricket Team was billed pre-tournament favourites and was widely expected to defend their title successfully in familiar conditions. India's team for the World Cup did not have some important members of the World Cup-winning squad of 1983, notably Mohinder Amarnath, Syed Kirmani, Madan Lal, Yashpal Sharma and Sandeep Patil, but all-rounder Kapil Dev once again led the side, which included world-class batsmen Sunil Gavaskar, who was to retire from all forms of cricket after the tournament. Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri, Mohammed Azharuddin and Kapil Dev are on other side. The bowling too was decent enough, with Kapil Dev leading the attack, supported by Ravi Shastri, Maninder Singh, Manoj Prabhakar, Chetan Sharma and Roger Binny.
The journey of India in World Cup Cricket did never see such a huge success in the following editions and failed to cross the Semi-Finals in most of the occasions.
World Cup Cricket, 1992
The 1992 World Cup ended unsuccessfully. It was co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, despite playing a Test series in Australia just prior to the World Cup. The Indian team for the World Cup had a good batting line up consisting of captain Mohammed Azharuddin, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, all rounders Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and a rising talent in Sachin Tendulkar. The bowling wasn't too strong though. Kapil Dev led the bowling line up, which also included Ravi Shastri, Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatapathy Raju. A new format was introduced for the 1992 World Cup, with the group format being scrapped in favour of a round-robin format, where each team would play all the other 8 teams in the tournament once, with the top 4 teams at the end of the Round-Robin stage progressing to the semifinals. It was also the first Cricket World Cup played with coloured jerseys and which had day-night matches.World Cup Cricket, 1996
India was the co-host of the 1996 Cricket World Cup along with Pakistan and Sri Lanka and was expected to perform well at home. Their batting was their strongest point, with Sachin Tendulkar, Captain Mohammed Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sanjay Manjrekar together forming the strongest batting line-up in the tournament. While the bowling was a bit suspect, the team had a decent set of bowlers who were good at home conditions in Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Manoj Prabhakar and Venkatapathy Raju.
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