EDITORIAL
What makes this title genuinely historic is the burden India carried into it
There are victories that surprise, and victories that feel like the natural order of things asserting them. India’s 96-run destruction of New Zealand in the T20 World Cup final on Sunday was emphatically the latter and yet it was far more layered than what its scoreline suggests.
Begin with the venue. For much of the last two and a half years, the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad carried an asterisk. It was here, in November 2023, that an Indian team that had won ten consecutive World Cup matches faltered in the final against Australia. That defeat lodged deep in the national cricketing consciousness, the way only a loss at the final step can. On Sunday, however, the Indian team reclaimed the ground.
This title is genuinely historic because of the triple burden India carried. No defending champion had ever retained the T20 World Cup, no host nation had ever won it, and no team had lifted it three times. India broke all three records in a single evening. The transition that preceded this win deserves acknowledgment. The T20 retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and R Jadeja created a void that could easily have destabilised a lesser set-up. Instead, under SKY’s captaincy and Gautam Gambhir’s aggressive coaching, India looked fearless, deep and unburdened by reputation. Three totals exceeding 250 and a win-loss ratio over 5.5 across the cycle do not happen by accident. This team killed jeopardy as a matter of habit.
Two individuals above all others defined the campaign. Sanju Samson’s story is one that cricket lovers across India will savour the longest. Perpetually squeezed out by extraordinary competition, he arrived as a tactical adjustment brought in as opener to counter off-spin aimed at India’s left-heavy top order. What followed was a masterclass in composed, match-winning batting which included three consecutive half-centuries in the knockout stage scoring 321 runs in total. His Player of the Tournament award was justice long delayed.
Jasprit Bumrah, meanwhile, simply did what he does in major tournaments. He made batting against him look like an exercise in managed suffering. The coaching staff’s trust in their players and the players’ belief in the system, produced exactly the kind of unshowy resilience that distinguishes great teams from merely good ones.
Across India, celebrations carried on well beyond the final ball, reviving a familiar question: when will the game’s biggest stage return closer to home? In Goa, three days after the final match, celebrations continue in homes, at Mapusa’s chai tapris and at Morjim’s beach shacks. This state’s love for cricket is unconditional. It is worth remembering that the last international match played on Goan soil was in 2010 on a stadium now fully dedicated to football.
The vision of an international cricket stadium has been tied for years to land in Dhargal, Pernem. Despite land allotted in 2018, BCCI approval, a Rs 100 crore grant secured, architects appointed and a 32,000-seat design drawn up, not a single brick has been laid. A 2024 government notice threatened to reclaim the site, and a deadline was issued in 2025. The land sits waiting in the shadow of the newly operational Mopa airport. Without assigning blame to any, the plain truth is this: Goa deserves better. The India team showed what happens when vision is matched by execution, and ambition is backed by institutional will. At Dhargal, there is vision on paper and land on lease. What remains missing is the will to act before another year slips by quietly. The blue tide has turned gold. Goa is still waiting to host it.
