Express View on T20 World Cup: India’s victory is a just reward for the hard work of the last two years

When Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma cradled Rahul Dravid in their arms and enlisted their team-mates to joyously flip him in the air, on the Barbados pitch where their contrasting journeys culminated in an epic climax, the circle of joy felt complete. Dravid, whose greatest blight as an India captain happened in the Caribbean in 2007, was seeking redemption in his last game as India coach on the same shores. Sharma, whose international career took its own sweet time to warm up, needed this T20 triumph to join the pantheons of great leaders that includes Kapil Dev and MS Dhoni. This was his last T20 international and it’s unlikely he will be fit and around for the 2027 ODI World Cup. Kohli, who had had a disappointing T20 World Cup — his last too — puffed out his chest in the final. The match will stay in the minds of all three for years to come.

Seldom has an acutely self-conscious Dravid let himself go as he would do at the end. Rarely has Kohli and Sharma celebrated the way they did, wrapping each other with an Indian flag and holding the trophy together. It isn’t just a reward for the last month in the US-Caribbean region but for the hard work and heartaches that have gone on in the last couple of years, at least. They came close to a whisker of doing this last November but were denied by Australia in the ODI World Cup. The stars had seemingly aligned then but combusted, leaving a lingering sign of whether they would ever overcome the final hurdle in an ICC tournament. The victory at the T20 World Cup has to be seen in the context of this achievement: Three men eager to hand over the baton to the next generation, but with their job accomplished and not wanting to pass on the burden of an unfulfilled past. Fittingly, Sharma showed the younger generation the aggressive template, taking it upon himself to do the hard yards as an opener while Kohli showed how to own big-game pressure. And, it was Dravid, who deflected attention from himself and ensured no panic calls were taken.

Nothing came easy on Saturday. India was wobbling when Axar Patel, promoted up the order, came up with a memorable World Cup final cameo. Kohli kept guiding the team along, holding his end. Though the spinners didn’t have a great day, the troika of Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, and Arshdeep Singh pulled off a heist in the dying minutes with more than a little bit of magic from Suryakumar Yadav. He was on the edge of the ropes, as was India at that moment, but managed to stay on the legal side to pull off a great win that will stand the test of time.