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Code blue: Kunal Pradhan on how India went full throttle to win T20 World Cup
Code blue: Kunal Pradhan writes on how India went full throttle to win the T20 World Cup
Code blue: Kunal Pradhan writes on how India went full throttle to win the T20 World Cup
What a moment in Indian cricket: a team where the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts; a superstar squad virtually shorn of superstars.
Updated on: Mar 13, 2026 1:45 PM IST By Kunal Pradhan Share via Copy link Sanju Samson is not the typical Indian cricketing superstar. He’s never played a Test. He made his one-day debut in 2021 but has featured in only 16 matches, and none since 2023. Hardik Pandya, Ishan Kishan and Tilak Varma at the Modi stadium last Sunday. (PTI) The talisman of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 13 years, he’s the kind of player who seemed destined to be known more for league exploits than national heroics. Sanju Samson, 31, is now the toast of the country after back-to-back-to-back knocks in the virtual quarterfinal, the semi-final, and the final of the T20 World Cup. His story, in a nutshell, is the running theme that both binds and exemplifies India’s 2026 history-makers, a rag-tag bunch of swashbucklers who have not only become the first team to defend the world’s premier T20 crown but the only ones to win it at home (in the 10 editions since 2007). For this is not about Sanju Samson alone. Pick any player other than the mighty Jasprit Bumrah, and you could spark an argument about whether they have a guaranteed place in the starting line-up in a squad brimming with bench strength: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, even skipper Suryakumar Yadav in the batting unit; Hardik Pandya as the pace all-rounder; and Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel in the bowling department. Gautam Gambhir’s strategy paid off. Stars such as Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, with impressive T20 records capable of pacing the innings, were left out in favour of pure power in a bid to score 200 / 230 / 250 in every match. Sanju Samson (above) stormed into the last four matches to deliver knock after knock after knock. (AFP) Those 11 names that made the team sheet in the final, and others in the group who backed them at different points through the tournament, are a unique blend. They represent a remarkable step in India’s cricketing journey, an idea whose time has at last come: a unit where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; a superstar squad virtually shorn of superstars. A champion team that was, like it or not, fashioned out of coach Gautam Gambhir’s belief that Indian cricket needed to shed its personality cult, particularly in the shortest format, where the fearless often trump the peerless. HOW IT STARTED Gambhir was there when India’s T20 journey began, almost by accident, 19 years ago. 2007 was a difficult year for Indian cricket. The dressing room run by coach Greg Chappell was a toxic place where uncertainty ruled. Bowlers at the peak of their powers lost their rhythm, top batters started to fend for themselves rather than fighting for the team’s cause, and even some elite fielders began to lose their bearings in an era of classroom instructions. It was a far cry from the clever blend of tenderness and professionalism that Chappell’s predecessor John Wright had brought, as India’s first foreign coach. The team finally imploded at the ODI World Cup in the West Indies. India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to get knocked out in the group stage for the first time since 1992, sparking fervent scrutiny back home. Chappell was sacked, the seniors were left licking their wounds, and India ended up sending a young team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with Lalchand Rajput as makeshift coach, to the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa. Since India had played only one T20 international before the tournament — a low-scoring six-wicket win at Johannesburg in 2006 — no one expected them to withstand the pressure of an ICC event. But Dhoni and his boys, Gambhir among them, had other ideas. They survived a bowl-out against Pakistan in the group stage and brushed aside a defeat to New Zealand in the Super 8s. Yuvraj Singh then stepped up to the plate by smashing England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over, before slamming a match-winning 70 off 30 balls against Australia to storm into the semi-final. The grinding win against Pakistan in the final — S Sreesanth famously caught Misbah-ul-Haq in the final over to bowl them out five runs short — felt like catharsis after months of turmoil. It was an event that would change world cricket. The IPL was launched the following year. Twenty20 soon became the centrepiece of the calendar, powered by the muscle of the Indian cricket board, and a T20 World Cup was slotted every other year even as the ODI World Cup continued to run every four years as usual. HOW IT’S GOING Ironically, India then went through a dry spell, over the next seven editions of the T20 World Cup. There was a final lost to Sri Lanka at Dhaka in 2014, a couple of semi-final runs that ended bitterly. It took Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, towards the end of their careers, backed by Bumrah and a bunch of younger utility players, to alter the script, in the Caribbean, in 2024. So if Rohit scored in the semi-final against England, Kohli did the job in the final against South Africa, and the Ro-Ko combo cemented its place as the greatest white-ball duo of its generation. But the victory last week was qualitatively different from the triumph two years ago, for three principal reasons. First, the 2026 team functioned as an amorphous unit where roles and positions changed dynamically. Sanju Samson, who didn’t find a place on the team at the start of the tournament, was brought in for the last four matches. Bumrah sometimes used the new ball and sometimes came on as first-change. Patel sometimes started to roll his arm over in the bottom half of the innings, and sometimes in the power play. And Kishan, Surya, Varma, Pandya and Dube floated around the middle-order, swapping slots in every other game. Second, there were no safety valves. This was a batting unit made up of explosive stroke-makers without any blockers or builders. Stars such as Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, with impressive T20 records capable of pacing the innings, were left out in favour of pure power in a bid to score 200 / 230 / 250 in every match. It was a high-risk, high-reward approach that Gambhir pushed unapologetically, despite friendly advice and fierce criticism. Third, India pulverised New Zealand in the final in a way no Indian team had ever done before. It was reminiscent of how Australia and West Indies won World Cups in their prime. India was at the receiving end of such thrashings in the 2007 and 2023 ODI World Cup finals, but had never meted out such punishment in a title clash. What it all boils down to is the larger philosophy of the team. One that is unlikely to work in Test cricket or ODIs or even in T20s on lively tracks abroad, but was a perfect fit for this campaign. Instead of relying on a few trump cards, as Indian teams have done in the past, Gambhir chose to play all his cards at the same time. A new paradigm for Indian cricket: Everything, everywhere, all at once. (The views expressed are personal) Gautam Gambhir Indian Premier League Sanju Samson Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs. News / Lifestyle / Art Culture / Code Blue: Kunal Pradhan Writes On How India Went Full Throttle To Win The T20 World Cup See LessSanju Samson is not the typical Indian cricketing superstar. He’s never played a Test. He made his one-day debut in 2021 but has featured in only 16 matches, and none since 2023.
The talisman of the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) for 13 years, he’s the kind of player who seemed destined to be known more for league exploits than national heroics.
Sanju Samson, 31, is now the toast of the country after back-to-back-to-back knocks in the virtual quarterfinal, the semi-final, and the final of the T20 World Cup. His story, in a nutshell, is the running theme that both binds and exemplifies India’s 2026 history-makers, a rag-tag bunch of swashbucklers who have not only become the first team to defend the world’s premier T20 crown but the only ones to win it at home (in the 10 editions since 2007).
For this is not about Sanju Samson alone. Pick any player other than the mighty Jasprit Bumrah, and you could spark an argument about whether they have a guaranteed place in the starting line-up in a squad brimming with bench strength: Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, even skipper Suryakumar Yadav in the batting unit; Hardik Pandya as the pace all-rounder; and Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel in the bowling department.
Those 11 names that made the team sheet in the final, and others in the group who backed them at different points through the tournament, are a unique blend. They represent a remarkable step in India’s cricketing journey, an idea whose time has at last come: a unit where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; a superstar squad virtually shorn of superstars.
A champion team that was, like it or not, fashioned out of coach Gautam Gambhir’s belief that Indian cricket needed to shed its personality cult, particularly in the shortest format, where the fearless often trump the peerless.
HOW IT STARTED
Gambhir was there when India’s T20 journey began, almost by accident, 19 years ago.
2007 was a difficult year for Indian cricket. The dressing room run by coach Greg Chappell was a toxic place where uncertainty ruled. Bowlers at the peak of their powers lost their rhythm, top batters started to fend for themselves rather than fighting for the team’s cause, and even some elite fielders began to lose their bearings in an era of classroom instructions.
It was a far cry from the clever blend of tenderness and professionalism that Chappell’s predecessor John Wright had brought, as India’s first foreign coach. The team finally imploded at the ODI World Cup in the West Indies. India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to get knocked out in the group stage for the first time since 1992, sparking fervent scrutiny back home.
Chappell was sacked, the seniors were left licking their wounds, and India ended up sending a young team led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, with Lalchand Rajput as makeshift coach, to the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa.
Since India had played only one T20 international before the tournament — a low-scoring six-wicket win at Johannesburg in 2006 — no one expected them to withstand the pressure of an ICC event. But Dhoni and his boys, Gambhir among them, had other ideas.
They survived a bowl-out against Pakistan in the group stage and brushed aside a defeat to New Zealand in the Super 8s. Yuvraj Singh then stepped up to the plate by smashing England’s Stuart Broad for six sixes in an over, before slamming a match-winning 70 off 30 balls against Australia to storm into the semi-final. The grinding win against Pakistan in the final — S Sreesanth famously caught Misbah-ul-Haq in the final over to bowl them out five runs short — felt like catharsis after months of turmoil.
It was an event that would change world cricket. The IPL was launched the following year. Twenty20 soon became the centrepiece of the calendar, powered by the muscle of the Indian cricket board, and a T20 World Cup was slotted every other year even as the ODI World Cup continued to run every four years as usual.
HOW IT’S GOING
Ironically, India then went through a dry spell, over the next seven editions of the T20 World Cup. There was a final lost to Sri Lanka at Dhaka in 2014, a couple of semi-final runs that ended bitterly.
It took Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, towards the end of their careers, backed by Bumrah and a bunch of younger utility players, to alter the script, in the Caribbean, in 2024. So if Rohit scored in the semi-final against England, Kohli did the job in the final against South Africa, and the Ro-Ko combo cemented its place as the greatest white-ball duo of its generation.
But the victory last week was qualitatively different from the triumph two years ago, for three principal reasons.
First, the 2026 team functioned as an amorphous unit where roles and positions changed dynamically. Sanju Samson, who didn’t find a place on the team at the start of the tournament, was brought in for the last four matches. Bumrah sometimes used the new ball and sometimes came on as first-change. Patel sometimes started to roll his arm over in the bottom half of the innings, and sometimes in the power play. And Kishan, Surya, Varma, Pandya and Dube floated around the middle-order, swapping slots in every other game.
Second, there were no safety valves. This was a batting unit made up of explosive stroke-makers without any blockers or builders. Stars such as Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul, with impressive T20 records capable of pacing the innings, were left out in favour of pure power in a bid to score 200 / 230 / 250 in every match.
It was a high-risk, high-reward approach that Gambhir pushed unapologetically, despite friendly advice and fierce criticism.
Third, India pulverised New Zealand in the final in a way no Indian team had ever done before. It was reminiscent of how Australia and West Indies won World Cups in their prime. India was at the receiving end of such thrashings in the 2007 and 2023 ODI World Cup finals, but had never meted out such punishment in a title clash.
What it all boils down to is the larger philosophy of the team. One that is unlikely to work in Test cricket or ODIs or even in T20s on lively tracks abroad, but was a perfect fit for this campaign. Instead of relying on a few trump cards, as Indian teams have done in the past, Gambhir chose to play all his cards at the same time.
A new paradigm for Indian cricket: Everything, everywhere, all at once.
(The views expressed are personal)
Source: HindustanTimes
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