Former Team India opener feels West Indies can be the best team despite crashing out of World Cup 2023 qualifiers

The fact that West Indies weren't able to advance to the ODI World Cup in India the first time around divided Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. The current crop of West Indian cricketers, formerly a fiery side that would crush anything in their path, managed to make some questionable history when they did not qualify for the World Cup for the very first time in their history.

The death knell was hammered home by the defeat to Scotland. Prior to this, they had suffered defeats to the Netherlands and Zimbabwe, helping in their exit from cricket's mega event. They also lost out on the Twenty-20 World Cup the previous year.

Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir on West Indies’ elimination

Sehwag, who is known for being blunt with his opinions, stated that politics rather than a lack of talent was to blame for the team's exclusion from the major cricket stages. Virender Sehwag said on Twitter, “What a shame. West Indies fail to qualify for the World Cup. Just shows talent alone isn’t enough, need focus and good man management, free from politics. The only solace is there isn’t further low to sink from here.”

On the other side, Gambhir was much more in favour of West Indian cricket as a whole. Gautam Gambhir while writing on Twitter said, “I love West Indies. I love West Indian cricket. I still believe they can be the No.1 team in world cricket.”

West Indies got off to a bad start against Scotland, losing four of their wickets in just their initial 10 overs. Following that, Romario Shepherd and Jason Holder combined for 77 runs, which appeared to help the situation stabilise. However, after they were out, the other members of the group disintegrated, leaving Scotland with a target of 181 to pursue. With fewer than seven overs remaining, the Scottish reached the goal and won, keeping them in the running for a World Cup spot.