India’s T20 World Cup wins: A tale of Elephants and Wolves

You cannot expect coolness from fire and heat from snow. Do you? 

In the end, things boil down to trust. Trust… which the Indian team had just started losing from its ardent fans, where cricket is considered a religion. Never in their wildest dreams had fans imagined that minnows Bangladesh would hand over an upset in the 50-over World Cup 2007 game on a sunny Port of Spain afternoon in West Indies. Then thrashing from Sri Lanka and India were out of the World Cup in the group stages.

MS Dhoni who was just three years old in Indian cricket then, described the euphoria when the dejected Indian team landed in Delhi after the World Cup loss, nine years later. 

"Media cars around us with their cameras and the big lights on top, it felt as if we had committed a big crime, maybe like a murderer or terrorist or something. We were actually chased by them.”

Talk about scrutiny. Facebook and Orkut were three years old, Twitter had countable users and precisely, the internet penetration in India was just 3.9 per cent. The conventional paper media, magazines, and LCD Televisions displayed cricketers' houses being mobbed, effigies burnt, and garlands of footwear around their life-size dummies. Cricket became more than entertainment.

2007: The Elephants

They say Elephants lead more often by force, ambition, and dominance, which is passed through the generations, regardless of size or strength.

The senior players in the Indian team backed off from travelling to South Africa for the novice T20 World Cup 2007 after they suffered a mind-numbing defeat four months back in the Over Cup. Sachin Tendulkar suggested Dhoni to lead the pack over the likes of Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh.

Greg Chappell resigned as the India coach and the team landed in the Rainbow Nation. But Chappell had revealed something about Dhoni, that very few in today’s time associate him with. 

"In a group Dhoni moved quite easily between the senior players and the junior players. Whilst he had great respect for the senior players, he didn't appear to feel out of place,” said Chappell.

“He wasn't disrespectful in any way, but he wasn't going to be a junior player and sit in a corner and keep quiet,” he added.

The jersey number 7 marched along with young guns to South Africa, who were to play the 7^th Match of the tournament as their first. Only Yuvraj and Dhoni had played one T20I each before the maiden T20 World Cup. The 15-member squad was a mix of firearms stock with abilities like SNT Motive General Purpose Machine Gun, good for over 900 rounds, and Beretta 1938, 600 RPM, that thrives on reputation.

The average age of Indian team was just 23.6

India topped Group A and Group be with sole loss against New Zealand. Come semi-final against Australia, they were termed as underdogs. When the Men-In Blue eventually thwarted the mighty Aussies by 15 runs…Dhoni had something to say to Former Indian cricketer and commentator, Ravi Shastri.

“Before I start I should say I read an article by you in Cricinfo. You’d said Australia were the favorites. Today I think me and the boys, we proved you wrong”.

24^th September 2007. It was India and Pakistan in the final and the latter needed just 13 off 6 with in-form Misbah Ul Haq at strike and nine wickets down. Bowling to him was Joginder Sharma, technically playing his last T20I for India having played just three earlier.

Elephants strike down big trees not in agitation, but for access to edible nutrients. The fallen tree grows horizontally and months later, becomes easily accessible as the fodder.

India might have done the same thing with Joginder. In the semi-final against Australia, he handed the ball to Joginder asking him to defend 22 runs.

"Once, in a hotel room he needed a pin but he didn't let me call room service. Began to improvise to find a sharp object. He said they all get a welcome letter from the hotel's general manager whenever they check-in, and that envelope is sure to have a stapler pin,” said Dhoni’s army friend.

Joginder recalled what Dhoni told him before the over while keeping ‘unsure’ Harbhajan Singh’s one over to spare at bay…

“If we win, you take the credit. If they win, I will take the blame.”

With 6 needed off four, Misbah played a paddle sweep, and the ball was clawed by Sreesanth as India breathed Johannesburg’s serene wind back home with tricolours flashing in the golden hour at the Bull Ring. 

“Bhajji [Harbhajan] was not 100% sure of getting Yorkers in the death. I thought I should throw the ball to someone who really wants to do well in international cricket. Jogi did a really good job,” said Dhoni after the game.

A folktale of blind men inspecting an elephant and creating context out of it finds them naming it as

"This being is like a thick snake", “kind of fan” “Pillar like a tree-trunk”, "is a wall” “a rope, and “a spear,”

2024: The Pack of Wolves

The appointment of Dhoni as the Indian captain changed Indian cricket forever. Under him, the T20 World Cup 2007 trophy was owned in Johannesburg, South Africa. Followed it up with 50 over World Cup 2011 at home in Mumbai and the Champions Trophy 2013 in Birmingham. But, after that, no ICC trophy came under India’s pantheon. Not even Dhoni could replicate it in his extended four-year captaincy.

Virat Kohli held the captaincy reigns and suffered Champions Trophy 2017 final loss. The World Cup 2019 semi-final loss was just healing and came with the World Test Championship final defeat in 2021. To add further drama, Rohit Sharma was named as the new captain. Things did not change either. 

Under Rohit, T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final loss further sunk the hopes. The World Test Championship 2023 final was Australia’s. The same opposition breached the jampacked, splattered-in-blue Ahmedabad Stadium on November 19, 2023, to hand over the biggest heartbreak by defeating India in the World Cup 2023 final.

Heard about Queen Sacrifice?

In Chess, a player sacrifices his priced queen to gain more tactical advantage. To make it easy, apt position, material, and yeah checkmate.

That’s what Indian fans did after the horrendous November 19 night.

It was 2023, internet penetration was 51.5 per cent. Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook made people voice their opinions beyond the stratosphere. A whopping 905 registered TV News channels and this is what India captain Rohit said after remaining unbeaten in the tournament until the final and eventual World Cup 2023 loss…

"I was thinking that the World Cup took place in our country but still we could not win. I felt the nation might be angry with us. But I only heard people praising how well we played, and how they enjoyed watching that cricket,” said Rohit.

Rohit when addressing the press conference along with chief selector, Ajit Agarkar on 2^nd May 2024 almost a month before the T20 World Cup 2024, said that he had his playing XI set even before the IPL 2024.

Just after the Test series against England, Rohit said that he had fun playing with youngsters and the emotions were vice-versa.

The average age of Indian team in T20 World Cup 2024 was 33

"I'll be lying if I said I thought he was captaincy material. It's an outstanding story because Rohit Sharma as a captain was always something that I questioned because of his temperament," said former India cricketer, Abhishek Nayar.

Indian team started the tournament with the right tone. They won game after game and reached Super 8’s. They beat Australia and the loss sent them out of the tournament as Rohit quipped there’s no Australia in the further stages.

Came the semi-final, England were outclassed; Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan stated, that India would go on trophy winning spree if they beat South Africa in the final.

It is believed that wolves have a pattern when they walk, it goes;

They walk in one line and the line has its hierarchies,

1) At the first, the veterans or old ones lead the way

Rohit and Virat opened the innings throughout the league. Rohit, Pant, and Suryakumar Yadav were out scoring 12 runs combined. Kohli scored a brilliant 76 off 59, Axar contributed 47 and India posted 176 on board.

2) The next are front liners, five absolute beasts

The five here are not players but the overs bowled by Indian pace batteries combined, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Hardik Pandya.

Bumrah’s arm rolled the way it never had. Probably the Bursa in his shoulder produced more lubrication and the ball grip might have burnt his fingertips while whipping one after another toward Proteas batters.

It was South Africa’s game to lose with 30 needed in 30. Bumrah and Arshdeep bowled three combines and conceded just 10 runs. Hardik picked up marauding Heinrich Klaasen (52 off 27) in between giving just four runs.

It all boiled down to 16 off the last over.

3) The final frontier, the coming from behind

Hardik Pandya could not sense the breeze, the body was warmed up to the fullest. He blinked his eyes faster so that no eyelid could harm his cause when he ran in. Suryakumar at long off, Rohit at mid-on, and Kohli guarding the other side of the boundary line.

The best were guarding the scoring areas, the plot was on and the hunt began…David Miller holes out to Suryakumar Yadav.

Rabada goes on the fifth ball and the last ball was what players were ready to express, shutterbugs’ field day and video of television screens dominating the explore pages of social media. And India won by seven runs.

As Rohit thrust the Indian flag onto the Caribbean land, players wept, accolades showered, Indian fielding coach T Dilip said this in the dressing room...

"We fielded like a pack of wolves, as Rahul bhai and Rohit keep saying... Everybody knew their roles but together we hunted every opportunity that came our way leaving no stone unturned," said Dilip.