Sourav Ganguly picks Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in his 2003 World Cup squad

Sourav Ganguly revealed that he would like to have current Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma from 2019 World Cup in his 'Class of 2003'. Ganguly had led Men In Blue in 2003 edition in South Africa where y had an outstanding run. y won nine of ir 11 matches and co-incidentally lost ir two matches to n mighty Australians in league st and n in all-important final.

Ganguly picks Kohli & Rohit in his 'Class of 2003'

Dada was interacting with Indian Test opener Mayank Agarwal on a chat show named  ‘DadaOpensWithMayank’ uploaded on BCCI Twitter handle and that is when a fan had asked southpaw to pick three cricketers from Team India's World Cup 2019 squad in his 2003 World Cup squad and was also asked to justify same. 

“(Virat) Kohli, Rohit Sharma and (Jasprit) Bumrah," replied current Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President. 

“ quality of fast bowler. We played in South Africa, although we bowled exceptionally well in that series. Bumrah, Rohit and Virat would be in middle. Rohit at top, and I at . 3. I don’t kw maybe Sehwag might be listening to this and I would get a phone call tomorrow, ‘what hell do you think’. But I would have se three in squad,” former Indian captain added.

Coming back to 2019 edition, Kohli & Co. were considered as one of strong contenders to win coveted trophy in England & Wales. However, 45 minutes of bad cricket where y had lost all ir frontline batsmen while chasing a modest total of 240 with hardly anything on board in semi-final against New Zealand meant that y had to wait for ar four years to win ir third 50-overs World Cup trophy. 

2003 World Cup final

India had made it to ir first-ever World Cup final after a long wait of 20 years. Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly won toss and elected to bowl first. His decision eventually backfired as Aussies scored 15 runs in first over bowled by Zaheer Khan and n re was looking back as destructive openers Matw Hayden (37) and Adam Gilchrist (57) added 105 runs for opening wicket. Skipper  Ricky Ponting (140*) and Damien Martyn (88) put on 234 runs for third-wicket stand to bat India out of contest as Aussies ended up scoring a mammoth 359/2 in ir 50 overs. 

In reply, India lost prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in very first over when he was caught & bowled off Glenn McGrath. Virender Sehwag (82) and n vice-captain Rahul Dravid (47) gave some hope with an 88-run stand. But once Sehwag was run out and Dravid was bowled, it was only a matter of time before Aussies ran through Indian middle and lower order to bundle 1983 winners out for 234 in 39.2 overs. 

READ: Javagal Srinath Reveals How India Could Have Won 2003 World Cup Final Against Aussies