BRIDGETOWN: A beautiful Barbados evening was setting in as the Indian team trooped out of the dressing room. Three hours had gone by since those magical moments had fashioned Indian cricket’s redemption song at Kensington Oval.
As a group, for one last time, they walked to the centre wicket — every member of the team, including the support staff — and savoured the moment of history together.
This group has won a lot, but they have endured the most painful defeats that you can think of. The World Test Championship mace was within touching distance but
Australia snatched it away at the Oval.
The ODI World Cup was a win away but Travis Head decided to have the day of his life in Ahmedabad on Nov 19, 2023. And it was very close to an encore of disappointment on Saturday as well before Heinrich Klaasen’s edge off Hardik Pandya started the South African choke.
And when Suryakumar Yadav latched on to David Miller’s skier off the first ball of the 20th over to complete the greatest catch in Indian cricket history since Kapil Dev’s catch to dismiss Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final, the Cup was well and truly India’s.
But this World Cup was not won in a day.
Outgoing coach
Rahul Dravid
, after numerous requests to come for a chat, revealed how the planning had started long back.
“It was way back in Sept 2021 that ideas started forming. We worked on it over the years, and here we are, on this beautiful Barbados afternoon,” Dravid said.
While there were serious efforts made to push the needle while batting, the defeat in the 2023 ODI World Cup final was a cruel blow for these bravehearts in blue. But as the management tried to deal with disappointment, a template was forged over the next few months.
It was decided that Virat Kohli and
Rohit Sharma
would open the batting and it would not change unless there’s an injury to any one of them. Four allrounders were included and add to that three left-arm spinners — something that’s not exactly common in any form of cricket.
Rohit explained why these unique methods were followed as India went after the prize that has been eluding them for so long.
“See, allrounders needed to add depth. We wanted to see how we could cover all bases, how we could get bowlers who can swing the ball in the beginning and reverse it in the end. Chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar had a big role to play in it and the BCCI allowed us to do what we wanted to do. They put a lot of faith in the team and that worked,” Rohit said.
While it was a moment of redemption for a team, there are a few in the group for whom it meant a little more. Dravid had never won a World Cup as a player, and he described Saturday as “a memory of a lifetime” for him.
Hardik had gone through incredible upheavals on personal and professional front. He seemed to have answered all those both with the bat and the ball.
“Yes, a lot of people have said a lot of things about me without probably knowing me. It’s fine, here I am now in front of you guys, being able to do what I was asked to do by the team,” Hardik, who could well be India’s next T20 captain, said, with the World Cup in his hand. And then, there’s a Virat.
The greatest T20 batter ever for India was having a torrid time in this World Cup till it all turned around in the final. Battling form, the champion played a match-winning knock that won him the 'Man of the Match' award in the last T20 game of his career.
Virat was happy. He was signing autographs, obliging all those who wanted selfies, but when there was a request for a farewell chat, he smiled: “Talking is not my forte. Playing is.”
Many of them are exiting the Indian T20 set up. Coach Rahul Dravid had announced before the tournament that this would be his last stint. Virat Kohli said goodbye to the format at the prize distribution ceremony. When TOI asked Rohit Sharma about his thoughts on his T20 career, the captain said: “This is the moment for me to leave this format. I hadn’t thought of it before, but the way things shaped up, this is the time to go.”
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