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India’s T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav says his side “wanted to win the [2026 T20] World Cup in India, and we wanted to win it in the same stadium in Ahmedabad, which was more important for us”. The memory of losing the 2023 ODI final to Australia at the very same ground still lingers, so lifting the trophy there two years later felt, in his words, “extra sweet”.
Key facts first: India have now claimed back-to-back T20 world titles, 2024 in the USA/Caribbean under Rohit Sharma and 2026 at home under Suryakumar. Of the XV who played this time, ten were older than 27 and nine past 30 – experience that probably helped when nerves jangled in the semi-final and final.
“ There was just minor differences between the two teams,” he told PTI, comparing the 2024 and 2026 outfits. “That was an experienced team, and very committed. This team is passionate. This year, I can say that we had less experience but more enthusiasm … It was necessary to explain to them how it feels to win a World Cup in India, when people will cheer so much for you, 50,000 people, a lakh people, in the stadium.”
Ahmedabad delivered that roar. Jasprit Bumrah’s miserly death-overs spell, Sanju Samson’s nerveless 38* in the chase and Suryakumar’s own rapid 41 turned what had been a tense final against England into a comfortable six-wicket win.
Numbers matter, though Suryakumar insists he does not obsess over them. His captaincy record stands at 42 wins from 52 T20Is – an eye-catching 80.76% success rate. “I feel that the percentage I tried to achieve in school and college by studying, I’m getting that today in cricket here,” he joked. “There, I could never cross [50-60%] … nobody likes to lose in any game. I also love winning all the games.”
Those school days in Mumbai were shaped by a family that valued education. Father Ashok, an electrical engineer at BARC, pleaded with his son to stick with the books. Sport always won. “My family tried a lot to educate me first, [but] in a short time they got the idea that this boy is not interested in studies,” the batter recalled. “This boy can’t be controlled … so they said, ‘okay, go play; if nothing happens later, then we are here to take care of it’.”
The gamble has paid off. A late international debut arrived in 2021 – first in T20Is, then ODIs, plus a solitary Test cap. It is in the shortest format that his 360-degree stroke-making has mesmerised bowlers: 113 matches, 3272 runs, strike rate nudging 150. “We’ve won it twice in a row, why not make it three times,” he quipped on the team’s flight back from Ahmedabad.
Expert voices echo that confidence without tipping into arrogance. Former India opener Wasim Jaffer told state television the current group “understands match-ups better than any Indian side I’ve seen”. Analyst Lisa Sthalekar pointed to the middle-order depth: “With Samson, Rinku and Tilak, they can absorb a collapse and still score 200.”
Yet there is realism too. Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey noted that Bumrah “can’t play every tour” and young quicks such as Mohsin Khan must be readied. The 2028 edition is in South Africa, where high bounce and Cape Town cross-winds are a different test.
For now, the champion squad have paraded the trophy from the Motera stadium to Mumbai’s Marine Drive, a short detour to the Adalaj Stepwell for an early-morning photo session. “There, at the stepwell, you could almost feel the weight of history,” Suryakumar said, cradling the silver trophy. Even a man with limited interest in statistics admitted he checked one fact on the team bus: only West Indies have won three consecutive T20 world titles. The chase for that record, like a classroom exam once dreaded, is now something to look forward to.
