We’ve been here before. India reaches the World Cup final. Opponent from the southern hemisphere. The India captain plays for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. The match is being held at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad and the nation is going crazy.
To be fair, neither this team nor its fans have forgotten the pain of the 2023 ODI World Cup final when Australia captain Pat Cummins said he wanted to silence the crowd on the eve of the match and proceeded to do so on match day.
This silence does not haunt this Indian team. But it certainly serves to inspire them. When asked, even as early as November 2025, which team he would like to face in a hypothetical ICC T20 World Cup final, skipper Suryakumar Yadav immediately replied: “Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Australia.”
He got almost what he wished for. New Zealand is Australia’s closest cricketing neighbour, and the Kiwis would like nothing more than to get the better of their Trans-Tasman rivals.
But as impressive as Mitch Santner and his team were in the semi-final against South Africa, they will know that this match is about India.
“We’re never given the chance to get to the semi-finals, and we’re always there, so we’re always David,” New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips told reporters ahead of Friday’s training session.
But for India, the stakes are also higher, both figuratively and literally. The group of blue-shirted fans who walked an hour to get to Motera would want nothing less than a win. This expectation will be heavy in the air and you will feel every setback greater than it already is. So the best strategy is to go ahead and stay there.
For Suriya and his team, this match will be another opportunity to show that the lessons imparted by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been learned. In fact, India’s dominance in the ICC’s white-ball tournaments has been a matter of long overdue: the 2023 ODI World Cup finalists, the 2024 World T20 champions, the 2025 Champions Trophy winners, the 2025 Women’s ODI champions and the 2026 World Under-19 champions.
All this winning means that the Indian team is full of confidence. When someone doesn’t shoot, others do. Believing that there is always someone there to pick up the slack is important in a format like T20 cricket where you are expected to maintain a high pace at all times.
In many ways, this tournament was a dream come true for some. Suryakumar helped India avoid an early blush, Jasprit Bumrah provided a regular dose of magic, Hardik Pandya the brashness, Ishan Kishan the swagger, Shivam Dubey the juggernaut, Sanju Samson got his timing right… champions all but when they reach the final, they will know that this is not a typical match. What they have done so far is important but only if they can do so in the summit struggle as well.
“We started this journey two years ago, and the department is back on the same playing field again where we left in 2023,” Suryakumar said on Saturday. “Be brave in difficult situations – that’s the simple message to the team.”
Wet hands, butterflies in the stomach, and desperation to succeed will all be felt that day. There will be the pressure the players put on themselves and the pressure they will feel from the fans.
“Of course, there are nerves. There will be butterflies in the stomach. But as I always say, if there is no pressure, there is no fun,” Suryakumar said.
But during this period, it will be their street smarts that will carry them along the way. This is where you reflect – where you come from, how you got here, but also about the lessons you’ve learned along the way that have made you the player you have become.
The New Zealand way was to find talent and hone it until it shined. In India, the onus is on the cricketers as there are a lot of them coming through the pipeline. You have to find yourself before Indian cricket can.
Going through India’s talent factory and making it to the national team is already a sign that each of these players has special talents. But what really sets this generation apart is that they don’t want to win…they want to rule. Now, only one team stands between them and their dream.
So, welcome to Motera. It can be your hell or maybe you can make it your heaven.
