India’s dressing-room stayed pretty quiet in the minutes before the toss. Two years on from the heartbreak of that ODI final on the same ground, Rohit Sharma’s side walked out at Ahmedabad and put 196 on the board, then bowled New Zealand out for 100. A 96-run margin, a second straight T20 World Cup, and a night that felt very different from November 2023.
Abhishek Sharma, who blasted a 50 from 18 balls, explained how long the week had felt before the final.
“I wanted to share this before as well but today is the best day to talk about this thing: The coach and the captain had faith in me. Even I was doubting myself because it wasn’t an easy tournament for me. I hadn’t experienced [anything like] this before – playing my first World Cup. But everyone was so like, you are going to win one big game, one big game. So I was doing my process but it was not that easy as a young player, just one or two years in the Indian team and then going through this phase. But I just love this team for the way they treated me in those days; I have never felt this way before.”
The left-hander admitted the build-up had nibbled at his confidence.
“It was not that easy for me. Through the whole year, I was doing so well for the team but at the big occasion, I wasn’t able to do well. But the faith and confidence the players and the coaches showed in me… I got emotional in between as well. I wanted to do really well in all the games but I couldn’t. Then I was like, I wanted to talk to the coach or the captain. They always said one thing: ‘You are going to win us the big games.’ I just wanted to wait for that day. You cannot ask for a better day than this.”
Suryakumar Yadav, India’s captain since 2024, tried to keep the whole thing measured – though even he slipped into a grin when asked about Jasprit Bumrah.
“I think it will take a little bit of time [to sink in], but definitely very happy with what has happened today. It has been a long journey, started post 2024 World Cup when the BCCI, Jay [Shah] bhai, the secretary at that time, Rohit [Sharma] bhai and everyone showed faith in me, gave me an opportunity to lead this wonderful side. And then it was a long, long cycle coming here again at the Narendra Modi Stadium and doing it. I think it’s a special feeling.
“We knew we were playing some good cricket throughout the two years and it was going really well. We just wanted to follow all the good habits which we followed in the 2024 T20 World Cup, tell the boys the same thing, what the feeling of winning a World Cup is, how we wanted to play in the bilateral series, that taste we wanted to take forward into the T20 World Cup. That was imbibed by everyone.
[On showing faith in Abhishek, Varun Chakravarthy and Sanju Samson] “It’s really important to understand what they are capable of, and I knew they had the match-winners in them. The timing was perfect for Sanju to come in. Varun Chakravarthy, Abhishek Sharma, the world No. 1 players, we always knew that they had something special, no bigger stage than a final to do something. And also how Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel [performed], they have been in the circuit for a really long time, taking care of each other with all the support staff. I think it was very, very special.
[On Bumrah] “Like Sanju said in the last game that he wanted to give his Man-of-the-Match [award] to Boom… Once in a generation bowler, I can call him a national treasure right now. He knows what needs to be done, how it needs to be done,”
Those words matched the numbers: Bumrah’s 3 for 14 swung the door shut after New Zealand’s top order fell behind the rate in the powerplay. Varun Chakravarthy’s carrom-ball held its line when Glenn Phillips missed a slog, while Axar Patel chipped away from the Pavilion End and turned his figures into a tidy 2 for 24.
Rohit Sharma chose not to speak at length – the captaincy baton having already passed – but he did accept the trophy alongside Suryakumar before slipping quietly to the back of the team photo. The symbolism was hard to miss.
New Zealand, for their part, offered no excuses. Tom Latham called Abhishek’s assault “the difference inside the first ten overs”, and coach Gary Stead pointed to the two dropped chances that let India race past 190 – a par-plus score on a surface that stopped slightly but never broke up.
Key numbers
• India’s 96-run win is their biggest margin in a men’s T20 World Cup knockout match.
• Abhishek’s 18-ball half-century is the fastest in any World Cup final, overtaking David Warner’s 21-ball effort in 2022.
• Bumrah finished the tournament with an economy rate of 5.9; only Sunil Narine (2014) has managed lower while bowling 20 or more overs.
What next? A short break, then a five-match T20I series in Sri Lanka, where fringe players will press claims ahead of the next WTC cycle. For now, though, the silverware sits in the cabinet and the ghost of 2023 feels that little bit smaller.
