Under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma, India have finally ended their drought of an ICC tournament for 11 years, after winning the T20 World Cup 2024, at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, holding their nerve for a seven-run win over South Africa, who were almost near the winning margin, but lost at the last heartbeat.
The Indian team has been under superb touch in this tournament, having been unbeaten throughout the tournament, and becoming the first-ever team to remain the same in winning an ICC trophy.
The Blue Brigade began the group stage of the competition, with wins over Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States, while they went into the ‘super eight’ stage of the tournament in the same process, by getting the better of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Australia.
‘Good things happen with good people’- Rohit Sharma
The way Rohit Sharma has led the team under pressure, being calm and composed and not allowing the nerves to take over the situation deserves all the praise, and India, having been on the wrong side of the margin on many past occasions, has finally made their way on the right side of it.
Also Read: India Women Create Test History Against South Africa Women
The talk of the team since their horrible semifinal defeat by 10 wickets in the last T20 World Cup in 2022 against England on a flat Adelaide ground, was whether they would change the template in which they play the shortest format of the game.
Someone was needed to raise their hands and do the job of going berserk at the start against the new ball in the powerplay overs, to put a platform for the team, where they can use the situation pretty well. And it was Rohit Sharma who stepped ahead and decided to forget the ‘fear of failure’ and keep on smashing the bowlers from the very first over of the innings.
The question was even though they have done it in the group stage, could they go with the same intent in a knockout game, where there is pressure mounting over them, and where there is no looking back?
They found themselves under pressure against England again in Guyana, losing Virat Kohli early in the batting, but Rohit Sharma and Surya managed to remain calm throughout the process and dealt in boundaries and over boundaries only.
The situation got better as India reached the final of the T20 World Cup, after a gap of 10 years, and once they lost three wickets, including their captain in the powerplay, the question again stood whether they could still keep on nailing the big shots by keeping the good balance between aggression and defense.
They reached to a good total of 177/6, but then when Heinrich Klassen started to smash the ball and brought down the equation to 30-rums being required in 30-balls, it felt like the game had moved far from the Indian team, but then came their three pacers- Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh.
Hardik grabbed a brilliant catch at the end of the game, to send back David Miller, who could have easily changed the momentum of the game. It’s the situation, where they clicked and remained calm. These are the moments where India had gone a little flat in the past but not this time.
Also Read: ‘Fan Of Rohit Sharma As Batter, Captain And Person’- Nasser Hussain
The India captain, coming in the post-match press conference shared the view that good things happen with good people and perhaps it was written for them to lift the trophy.
‘I believe it’s all writer in the stars and it was written. Obviously it wasn’t written before the match. That’s the game. And like you said, good things happen with good people. You have said that I am a good person.’ Rohit Sharma answered in the presser at the end of the game.
With the win, he always calls time in his 17-year-old long T20I career for India.