Former India off-spinner and member of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup winning squads, claimed that Rohit Sharma’s 2024 T20 World Cup winning squad had more match winners when compared to MS Dhoni’s 2007 T20 World Cup winning team.
Harbhajan explains the reasons. Harbhajan stated that in 2007, they did not have many seasoned campaigners, except a handful, whereas the present squad is packed with match-winning players from top to bottom.
“Overall, if you see the 2024 T20 World Cup winning squad had more match winners than our team (2007 T20 World Cup). Back then it was a very new format for us. We were playing for the first time. We didn’t have much clue about T20 cricket. We went with the flow and kept on winning,” Harbhajan Singh said on Taruwar Kohli’s podcast.
“Now you see the names in 2024, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya… all of them are big match-winners. Then you have Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Akshar Patel. I feel people don’t talk more about Axar. You see his performance in the final. It was immense. Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah were throughout excellent. All of them are matchwinners. They played excellent cricket in the tournament,” Harbhajan added.
When asked about the 2007 World T20, Harbhajan claimed his most vivid recollection of the competition was Dinesh Karthik's wonderful catch to dismiss South Africa's Graeme Smith.
“Small small contributions matter the most. I still remember DK (Dinesh Karthik) taking a stunning catch at gully to dismiss Graeme Smith against South Africa. Small contributions leave a massive impact on you. That catch is still very fresh in my memory,” he recollected.
Here is the video:
