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

Sourav Ganguly revealed that he would like to have the current Indian skipper Virat Kohli and his limited-overs deputy Rohit Sharma from the 2019 World Cup in his 'Class of 2003'. Ganguly had led the Men In Blue in the 2003 edition in South Africa where they had an outstanding run. They won nine of their 11 matches and co-incidentally lost their two matches to the then mighty Australians in the league stage and then in the 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 the 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 the same. 

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

“The quality of fast bowler. We played in South Africa, although we bowled exceptionally well in that series. Bumrah, Rohit and Virat would be in the middle. Rohit at the top, and I at no. 3. I don’t know maybe Sehwag might be listening to this and I would get a phone call tomorrow, ‘what the hell do you think’. But I would have these three in the squad,” the former Indian captain added.

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

The 2003 World Cup final

India had made it to their first-ever World Cup final after a long wait of 20 years. The Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly won the toss and elected to bowl first. His decision eventually backfired as the Aussies scored 15 runs in the first over bowled by Zaheer Khan and then there was no looking back as destructive openers Matthew Hayden (37) and Adam Gilchrist (57) added 105 runs for the opening wicket. Skipper  Ricky Ponting (140*) and Damien Martyn (88) put on 234 runs for the third-wicket stand to bat India out of the contest as the Aussies ended up scoring a mammoth 359/2 in their 50 overs. 

In reply, India lost the prized wicket of Sachin Tendulkar in the very first over when he was caught & bowled off Glenn McGrath. Virender Sehwag (82) and the then 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 the Aussies ran through the Indian middle and lower order to bundle the 1983 winners out for 234 in 39.2 overs. 

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