A CUP HIGH, A HOME LOW

With a decisive showing at the T20 World Cup, the Indian cricket team ended their 13-year wait for an ICC trophy; but beyond that, red-ball success remained elusive

- Somshuvra Laha

In the 13 years, two months and 26 days since April 2, 2011, India's relationship with the cricket World Cup had become a one-way street of unrequited love. The Champions Trophy 2013 was a much-celebrated follow-up of the ODI World Cup win but the absurdly high count of near-misses thereafter injected a strain of nervous uncertainty whenever India were in the knockouts. The last straw came on November 19, 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium when Australia silenced India in front of 100,000 boisterous fans. In the final of an ODI World Cup where India simply looked unbeatable, that defeat was probably the hardest to swallow.

Occasional misery is the raw end of the deal an average cricket fan must accept. But the despondency that had built up across three ODI and five T20 World Cups where India were knocked out in a final (2014) and four (2015, 2016, 2019, 2022) semi-finals had peaked in the aftermath of the defeat in 2023. For a country whose sporting spectrum for years began and ended with cricket, not winning a World Cup was starting to seriously rankle. A line in the sand had been drawn, with the future of multiple careers hinging on India's performance at the 2024 T20 World Cup.