India became the first team to defend the T20 World Cup title and lift the coveted trophy thrice.
As a result, the Men in Blue became the first team to defend their T20 World Cup title, win the trophy on three occasions and win on home soil.
India’s historic triumph was lauded by the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, who credited the IPL for the depth of talent in Indian cricket.
“It tells you that Indian cricket is in very good hands. When you look at the performances through the IPL, you realise how instrumental the league has been in producing so many players for India. The IPL has not only helped in the T20 format but across all formats of the game, and you can clearly see the results of that. There are so many talented players who could have easily made it into the playing XI but were unable to because of the intense competition,” Gavaskar told India Today.
“In fact, if there was a situation where other countries could say, “You’re not picking these players, can we borrow them?”, many of them would easily walk into the playing XIs of other teams. That shows the real strength of Indian cricket. India could probably have fielded two or even three strong teams in this tournament,” he added.
Gavaskar was effusive in praise of Suryakumar Yadav for the way he led the Indian team during the tournament.
According to him, Suryakumar’s calm personality and positive attitude was instrumental in India’s triumphant campaign. He likened Surya’s leadership style to that of Rohit Sharma.
“He is such a calm, cool and collected captain, very much in the mould of Rohit Sharma. He is always smiling and always positive in his attitude and approach. The way he has handled situations throughout the tournament has been impressive, even though he did not always produce the outstanding performances with the bat that many had hoped for,” Gavaskar said.
“He began the tournament with a crucial innings against the United States, scoring 84 not out when India were in serious trouble at 71 for 4. That knock helped rescue the team from a very difficult situation. After that, he did not always get the big runs, but his leadership was never in doubt. He was clearly the leader of the side, and you could see that everyone in the team looked up to him. The players were very fond of him and were willing to give that little bit extra for their captain,” he remarked.
India produced a clinical performance in the final, posting a mammoth 255/5 in 20 overs after being put into bat -- the highest-ever total in the title clash of a T20 World Cup.
Sanju Samson led the way with a knock of 89 in 46 balls. Abhishek Sharma (52 off 21) saved his best for last, smashing the fastest half-century of the tournament, off just 18 balls. Kishan (54 off 25) and Shivam Dube (26* off 8) also made significant contributions.
With the ball, Jasprit Bumrah (4/15 in 4 overs) and Axar Patel (3/27 in 3 overs) were the pick of the bowlers as India bundled New Zealand out for 159 in 19 overs.