Claiming The Crown, One More Time

The build-up was perfect. Familiar foes like Pakistan, who had upstaged them once in the last-held Champions Trophy were decimated and the aggressive Aussies sent home after a balanced, steady counterattack. It was the nagging New Zealanders, who had pipped them in the inaugural World Test Championship and the home Test series rather humiliatingly, whom the ‘invincible’ Indians had to take, head-on.

After all, it was the average Indian cricket fan, who was delirious and spilled on to the streets till late last night joining many more like him, screaming and waving the national flag, who was awaiting this cherished outcome. Having lost hope on their heroes, two of them who were clearly living on extended time in the cricket sphere, the wildly optimistic were only hoping against hope that the titans of their cricket team come good, one last time.

The swagger and the near-Aussie like body language of the New Zealand cricket team was too obvious to be missed. Mitchell Santner, who had treated the legends and icons of the Indian team like they were rookies waiting to be swatted was back again with a few more of his ilk, which included the Indian origin player in their team, Rachin Ravindra.

The jolt they got during the league phase, when mystery spinner Varun Chakravarty showed them we had a few surprises up our sleeve, didn’t deter them as they plotted their way well and met the Dubai-based Indians on equal terms as the final game progressed.

In the end, it was the amazing consistency of the players which clinched the title in our favour. Already, there are memes circulating in social media as to how a Rahul was responsible for the victory of Indian cricket team, vey much akin to his namesake who is avowedly the reason behind the present Modi 3.0 reign.

Over a span of four decades and more, the ODI format has had its own ebbs and flows. With the youngest format of the lot, T 20, a huge hit across the world, with its instant justice model, many a time, along with the Test cricket mode, pundits were speculating about how it would survive in this instant gratification era.

With the victorious captain, Rohit Sharma, firmly announcing that he is not moving away from the ODI mode, signaling his continuing love for the white ball cricket, the game lovers must be sensing that Indians are ready to give it more time. This is a welcome development, given that it is our cricket team and the Board that has a decisive say in major affairs of governance of the game, overall.

The joy and relief on the faces of the victorious players as they hugged and patted their fellow players and dear members of their respective families was a great experience, given that they have encountered trenchant criticism since the debilitating loss in the Test match zone.

It’s on this high that the IPL 2025 will begin where the club cricket format will see divided loyalties, aggressive actions on the ground and destructive batting performances by the known stars of the T 20 format who are the young ones to take the Indian cricket game ahead in the forthcoming decade.