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Ahmedabad – The celebrations had barely settled when Ishan Kishan and Abhishek Sharma paused to explain how a tight-knit Indian squad had dragged them through rough patches and into a World Cup final they will never forget.
India’s 47-run win over New Zealand on Sunday finished with two of the side’s younger faces front and centre. Kishan rattled a 23-ball half-century from No. 3 while Abhishek blitzed the tournament’s quickest fifty – 18 balls – in a power-play that put the match almost out of reach. Both had looked adrift earlier in the competition. Both say it was the group around them that stopped any slide.
“In that sense, the company around you matters a lot,” Abhishek said, still gripping the match ball, his pads unstrapped. “When I wasn’t able to contribute, everyone was saying ‘you’ll do it.’ I was struggling with self-doubt, but it was the players, coaches and support staff that had belief in me.”
Kishan nodded alongside him. “If you’re doubting yourself, then you can’t express yourself on the field,” he said, with a grin aimed at his team-mate. “But I also feel that when you’re working hard and helping others during their bad times, then it all comes back to you as well at a later time.”
A pair of lean returns
Abhishek began this World Cup with three ducks – painful for any opener – and wandered through the group stage fighting rhythm. “When I was not making runs, everyone in the team was wanting me to get among the runs again,” he explained. That support, he insists, kept the door open for the swagger he finally showed on Sunday. The left-hander’s switch to a borrowed bat, too, received mention. “I scored my half-century with Shivam Dube’s bat,” he laughed. “So he can take some second-hand credit.”
Kishan’s route back was even longer. A period out of the India XI sent him into domestic cricket, where, he says, the only option was to plug away.
“When I had to go back to the domestic set-up, I did focus on myself but I decided that we need to move forward as a team since success is not for an individual in a team sport,” Kishan said. “You can pick up the good, small habits from your team-mates. And like Abhishek said, the company around you is very important. You don’t need negative people because then their negative thoughts hover around your own mind.”
Personal loss, public stage
Kishan’s 50 came with a heavier back-story. “I was not planning to say this, but I lost my cousin sister yesterday in a car accident,” he revealed quietly, a sentence that hushed the press room. “She always wanted me to score big runs. But today was a big day, rather than keeping my emotions, I just thought, ‘the best thing I can do is I can score runs for her’, and that’s why I looked up after scoring my fifty. It was for my sister, her family and my very close friends.”
Players around him appear to have cushioned the blow. “I was not feeling well mentally before the final, but I spoke to Hardik bhai,” he noted, before conversation drifted to lighter subjects.
Why the runs finally flowed
On the host broadcaster, Faf du Plessis praised Abhishek’s clearer head position at the point of contact. Anil Kumble highlighted the opener’s willingness to take the ball early, especially against New Zealand’s spinners. Martin Guptill added that the borrowed bat looked a touch lighter through the arc – a small technical shift, maybe, but the sort players swear by.
Numbers back up the eye test. Abhishek struck at 277 in the power-play; Kishan operated at 217, using the crease to upset lengths. Those bursts meant even a mid-innings wobble – 38 for 3 in seven overs – never felt terminal.
“It means a lot to me,” Kishan said of his return. “More than myself, my family members are much more relaxed now. As sportsmen, we can take care of ourselves in our difficult phases but it’s our family members who remain worried.”
Looking ahead
Neither batter pretended all problems vanish with one trophy. Form, they know, is fickle. Support, they argue, cannot be. “No matter how bad your time is, you have to firstly trust yourself,” Kishan reminded. Abhishek agreed, pointing to a core message the pair now intend to pass on: “We need to lift each other up.”
For India, that culture has just produced another World Cup. For Kishan and Abhishek, it has restored a bit of faith – and, judging by Sunday’s noise, plenty of fun.
