‘A wonderful journey’: Suryakumar Yadav revels in India’s T20 World Cup win
India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav has called for more success after securing a third successive men’s ICC trophy with their huge victory over New Zealand
India’s captain, Suryakumar Yadav, has set his sights on an extended period of white-ball dominance after the team secured a third successive ICC men’s trophy with a one-sided victory against New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final.
The country went more than a decade without winning a major trophy, but since 2024 they have banked two T20 World Cups and a Champions Trophy. “I’m very excited by the way things have gone since then,” Suryakumar said.
“The drought ended after a really long time and after that we never looked back. Everything changed in 2024. From there we understood how this team needs to work going forward, and it’s been a wonderful journey since then. We wanted to do something special in front of our home crowd and we want to continue doing that and never stop.”
Gautam Gambhir, the India head coach, described Sanju Samson as “a special player” after the batter was named player of the tournament, having recovered from losing his place in a miserable buildup to return and produce defining innings in their three knockout games, starting with an unbeaten 97 in the winner-takes-all final fixture of the Super 8s, against West Indies, followed by scores of 89 in both the semi-final and the final.
“Coming back from the kind of form that he was in takes so much character and courage, when you know that maybe your career is on the line,” Gambhir said. “Making a comeback like that and playing those kind of innings, with that strike rate and that type of flamboyance, you need to be a special player, you to be special talent, and hopefully he can kick on from here. I think he deserves a lot more than actually he’s got until now.”
After the final Samson revealed that he had been helped back into form by the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. “I’m out of words, out of emotions,” he said. “After the New Zealand series [in January, when he averaged 9.2] I was completely out of my mind. I thought: ‘My dreams are shattered, what else can I do?’
“But God had different plans, and I was rewarded for being brave enough to dream. In the last couple of months – I hope I can share it here – I have been in constant touch with Sachin. I reached out to him and have had some big conversations with him. Getting guidance from someone like him, what more can I ask for?”
Mitchell Santner, the New Zealand captain, admitted his side had let themselves down on the night, saying in particular his bowlers could have been “braver with yorkers and bouncers”.
“We all know that we weren’t at our best, and if you aren’t at your best against a very good team you’re going to be exposed, and that’s kind of what we were tonight,” he said. “We could potentially have done things a little bit different in the powerplay, but it’s pretty tough to stop guys when they’re going. They’re a very good team. They know how to play in these conditions, they play on a lot of flat wickets against quality sides and once they get going it’s pretty tough to stop.”