The T20 World Cup triumph was a team effort but overall, seven men stood taller than the rest.
WISH TEAM INDIA
1. ROHIT SHARMA
He was in woeful batting form in IPL & stripped of MI captaincy. But cometh the hour, cometh the man! As in ODI World Cup, Rohit again put the team before himself.He played with abandon and flow; his strike rate was a staggering 157 and he scored 257 runs, highest in the squad. More importantly, as commentators said, he exuded
craft and calm in captaincy executing dressing room plans to perfection. His ebullience at the top will be as missed as his captaincy
Do You Know? His 24 fours and 15 sixes were the highest in the team.
2. SURYAKUMAR YADAV
In 1999, South Africa had dropped the World Cup. Thanks to Yadav, India didn’t. His once-in-a-generation catch in the deep was as memorable as Kapil Dev’s backward sprint and grab of Vivian Richards’. ‘SKY’ had the pressure of living up to his rank as world’s no. 1 T20 batter. His knocks against USA and England were vital to the team’s cause. And his destructive intervention served India well against Australia (31 off 16) and Afghanistan (53 off 28)
Do You Know? He scored 60% of his runs in fours and sixes.
3. HARDIK PANDYA
He rewrote his life story at the World Cup. A foot injury had forced Pandya to quit 2023 ODI WC midway. His MI transfer and captaincy became a huge controversy; his IPL form the subject of cruel digs. But the 30-year-old all-rounder underlined why he is irreplaceable. He scored runs at an electrifying pace (strike rate: 151)
this WC and mixed his pace to claim 11 wickets while breaking partnerships and providing vital breakthroughs
Top Moment: His 3/20 included the game changing wickets of Klaasen and Miller in the final
4. AXAR PATEL
His aggressive batting and sharp left-arm spin provided India’s most serendipitous moments in the championship. He knifed through England’s top and middle order (3/23), helped India regain momentum with the bat (47 off 31, 4 sixes) in the final and against Pakistan. He arrived as a utility player, left as a premium all-rounder
Top Moment: His breathtaking catch of Oz captain Mitchell Marsh swung the game India’s way
5. KULDEEP YADAV
The thrashing in the final aside, the joyful ‘chinaman’ with curly hair delighted India cricket lovers with his subtle guile and craft from Super 8 onwards. Was at his best breaking England’s back in the semis
Top Moment: The delivery that bowled England’s Harry Brook around the legs can be watched on a loop
6. JASPRIT BUMRAH
He played eight games and was unplayable in each of them. Every batter handled him like expensive glass, with utmost care, and yet all were bamboozled by his video game-like craft. Bumrah is the world’s best paceman, and by a mile. Nobody has his deception, movement, variation, a lethal cocktail that earned him 15 wickets at 8.2 runs apiece for an astonishing economy rate of 4.2. He was The Man of this WC. His ER is the best ever in a T20 WC by a bowler to deliver at least 20 overs
Top Moment: Too many. But most notably the wickets of Mohammad Rizwan (Pakistan), Phil Salt (England), Reeza Hendricks and Marco Jansen (SA). All bowled.
7. ARSHDEEP SINGH
The 25-year-old Chandigarh-born claimed the second pacer’s spot exploiting the sharp movement and bounce of USA’s uneven pitches and proved to be an admirable foil to Bumrah. His 17 wickets, which made him the tournament’s joint-highest wicket-taker with Afghanistan’s Fazalhaq Farooqi, is also the joint-highest of any T20 WC.
Top Moment: Dismissals of the dangerous Tim David and Mathew Wade (Australia) in one over.
THEY ALSO SERVED WITH MERIT
Wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Shivam Dube also had their moments. Pant’s 42 off 31 against Pakistan on a treacherous pitch was invaluable.
Squad members Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal and Yashasvi Jaiswal didn’t get a game.
COACH: RAHUL DRAVID got the best out of his wards, finishing his tenure on a high note.
BEST FOR THE LAST
VIRAT KOHLI: Before the final, his scores were: 1, 4, 0, 24, 37, 0, 9. Balance and focus are his forte. But Kohli, who scored runs by the bagful at IPL 2024, seemed to lose both at the WC. It turned out he had reserved his best for the final. His 76 off 59 balls against SA was more than his total in 7 earlier innings: 75. India will miss his class and reassuring presence in the game’s shortest version
Do You Know? Kohli has 16 MoMs in T20I, a world record. Eight of them at WC, again highest for anyone.
