Olympic gold next target: Surya
New Delhi: Theon-field celebrations after India’s second T20 World Cup title in 18 months were not particularly exuberant to say the least, perhaps they reflected the habit of winning that the shortest format team has normalised. The players will get a rare opportunity to win an Olympic gold in Los Angeles when cricket returns to the Summer Games after a gap of 128 years. Among India’s victorious 15, only captain Suryakumar Yadav, 35, is on the wrong side of 30s but he is already backing himself to play those two major events in 2028. “Throughout the journey till today, it has been very special and collectively as a team what we’ve achieved, I think it’s right in front of you so very happy with that. Definitely the next goal is Olympics, Olympic gold and also the T20 World Cup that year. Don’t forget,” reminded Suryakumar
Mahendra Singh Dhoni took the opportunity to tell head coach Gautam Gambhir how good a smile looks on his intense face. Dhoni’s last Instagram post was back in 2024. “History gets created at Ahmedabad,big congratulations to the team and support staff and to all the fans of Indian Cricket Team worldwide.such a pleasure to see all of u play.” “Coach Sahab smile looks great on u,intensity with smile is a killer combo, very well done.enjoy guys...BUMRAH ke baare mein kuch na likhoon tou hi acha hai.
“I think my simple philosophy with Surya (India T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav) has always been that milestones don’t matter. It’s the trophies that matter. For too long in Indian cricket, we’ve spoken about milestones. And I hope, till I’m there, we’re not going to talk about milestones,” Gambhir said
After Rahul Dravid finished his tenure as the Indian cricket team’s head coach, the then captain Rohit Sharma had talked about how the legend was perceived to be his “work wife” by his better half. When one watches his T20 successor Suryakumar Yadav speak about current head coach Gautam Gambhir, the equation seems as comfortable and built on mutual trust and respect as it was between Rohit and Dravid.
When Suryakumar Yadav called Ishan Kishan to confirm his place in India’s T20 World Cup squad, the captain had just one question to ask the swashbuckling batter -- “World Cup jitayega?” Never the one to shy away from making a statement, Kishan answered Suryakumar with a question of his own, “Bharosa karoge? (Will you have faith in me?)”.
Suryakumar Yadav called Jasprit Bumrah a “national treasure”, coming up with the most appropriate superlative for the talismanic pacer after his incredible bowling in the T20 World Cup. “Bumrah is a once-in a generation bowler. I can call him a national treasure. He knows how it needs to be done, he is the best in the business,” Suryakumar said.
Virat Kohli, part of the victorious 2024 squad, lauded India for winning an unprecedented back-to-back T20 World Cup title, saying there was no match for the explosive cricket played by Suryakumar Yadav and Co.
Gambhir dedicated the team’s third T20 World Cup title to his predecessor Rahul Dravid and BCCI Centre of Excellence chief VVS Laxman, acknowledging their role in shaping the national side.
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar said life has come full circle for Sanju Samson, who rose from being a fringe player to emerge as the player of the tournament with three defining knocks in India’s knockout games during their historic T20 World Cup campaign.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner admitted his side was always up against it after India’s explosive start, conceding that the Black Caps entered the final as underdogs and needed everything to go their way while chasing a mammoth total. . “India in a final in India is always going to be a challenge. We knew that definitely the underdogs were going into the game. And they showed their class again tonight, with that batting performance.”