File photo of Indian cricket team.© AFP
The Indian cricket team will be playing a second World Cup final in eight months when it takes on South Africa in Barbados in the summit clash of the ongoing T20 mega event on Saturday. India lost to Australia in the final of 2023 Cricket World Cup on November 19 despite reaching the summit clash with an unbeaten tag. Now, the side will be having another chance to end its long wait of ICC title drought when it faces the Proteas in the final of T20 World Cup 2024.
Former India captain Sourav Ganguly hilariously said that Rohit might jump in the Barbados ocean if India lose the upcoming final as well.
“He has played two World Cup finals where he has gone into the final unbeaten. That speaks of his captaincy and leadership quality and I’m not surprised because he became captain when I was the BCCI president and when Virat didn’t want to captain India anymore,” said Ganguly as quoted by PTI.
“It took a lot of time to make him captain because he was not ready to captain. It took a lot of pushing from all of us to make him captain and I’m very happy to see the progress of Indian cricket under him.” Ganguly said winning IPL titles could sometimes be more challenging because of the duration of the tournament.
“Rohit has the record of winning five IPL titles, which is a huge achievement. Winning an IPL sometimes is more difficult. Don’t misquote me, I’m not saying IPL is better than international cricket.
“But you have to win 16-17 (12-13) matches to win an IPL; here you need to win 8-9 matches to win a World Cup. The honour is more in winning the World Cup, and I hope Rohit does it tomorrow.”
“I don’t think he can lose two World Cup finals in seven (six) months. He will probably jump into the Barbados ocean if he loses two finals under his captaincy in seven months. He has led from the front, batted brilliantly, and I hope it continues tomorrow. Hope India finishes on the right side, and they should play with freedom.
“They have been the best side of the competition. I wish them luck, I wish they win. Hope they have a little bit of luck tomorrow because that is required to win big tournaments,” Ganguly added.
(With PTI Inputs)
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