THE HITMEN

THE INSPIRING STORY OF HOW INDIA CAPTAIN ROHIT SHARMA AND HIS TALENTED TEAM BECAME THE T20 WORLD CHAMPIONS

- NIKHIL NAZ

THE CUP OF JOY

Team India celebrate with the trophy after winning the ICC men's T20 World Cup at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados, June 29

HOW DOES ONE DEAL WITH THAT 'one bad day'? Forget it and move on, the manual says. Rohit Sharma did exactly that. Only, it took him about 223 days to bury the ghost of the Ahmedabad 2023 one-day World Cup final. "Last night was a bad dream, right? I think the final is tomorrow" is how the skipper would later recall that fateful November night. It was no surprise then that on June 29, 2024, he lay face down on the turf of Kensington Oval in Barbados, minutes after the T20 World Cup was won-in one of the most endearing images from India's triumph-with his eyes closed, almost as if to force himself into another slumber and dream. "I started the game in 2007 winning the T20 World Cup and to leave the game winning it, that's a tailor-made situation for me," he says. "Life has come full circle...it has been brilliant."

But before lifting its fourth World Cup trophy across both formats, Team India had been caught napping on more than one crucial occasion. None was more critical than the semi-finals of the last edition of the T20 World Cup two years ago where they lay exposed before a rampaging England, the eventual champions. Losing by a margin of 10 wickets on a good batting track in Adelaide, it was evident that the Men in Blue were well behind the curve in T20 cricket. Something had to change.