The Indian team might be No. 1 in the world in all formats but such a position in the ICC charts matters little to Ex-Indian batter Gautam Gambhir. With the mission for team India being lifting the ODI WC this year, Gambhir believes that to win the showpiece event, the team would need to defeat Australia.

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Speaking in a special show of Star Sports, Gautam Gambhir said –

“Look, I have always said this, and there is no doubt in this, that if you want to win the World Cup, then you have to beat Australia.

Gambhir added – “In 2007 when we won the World Cup, we defeated Australia in the semifinal. In 2011 when we won the World Cup, we beat Australia in the quarterfinal. Australia is the strongest team in any ICC tournament. Remove the ranking, the ranking does not matter.”

Gambhir further said – “You can be in any position in the rankings, but Australia, when it comes to those big tournaments, the World Cups, I think Australia has got the players, they have got the self-belief.

Gambhir further added –

“Australia has the ability to play those big moments really well. And you can see this, the two World Cups that India won, we had to beat Australia in the knockout stage two times. And the World Cups that we have lost, in 2015 we lost to Australia.

“So I believe that if we have to win the World Cup this year, Australia is going to be the most important game, and we start against Australia, so there is nothing better than that. So beating Australia is very, very important.”