India’s victorious T20 World Cup team will take out a victory parade in Mumbai on Thursday evening like they did 17 years ago after the team under MS Dhoni lifted the inaugural T20 World Cup.
Rohit Sharma, the skipper, will be the cynosure of attention during the open bus parade this time. He was part of the triumphant 2007 side too, as the youngest member of the side that won the tournament in South Africa.
“We want to enjoy this special moment with all of you. So let’s celebrate this win with a victory parade at Marine Drive & Wankhede on July 4th from 5:00pm onwards. It’s coming home,” Rohit posted on X.
In 2007, the victory parade all the way from Mumbai airport to the Wankhede Stadium took six hours as the team was cheered on by a sea of people. This time though, the victory run will be much shorter as the players would be jet-lagged following the around 15-hour flight
from Barbados to Delhi, and then on to Mumbai.
The charter flight carrying the Cup-winning squad team is expected to land in Delhi at around 6am on Thursday. The World Cup winners will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over breakfast at 11am before departing for Mumbai. After winning the final on Saturday, the team had received a congratulatory call from the PM.
The open bus parade in Mumbai will be for around 1 km, on the stretch from Nariman Point across Marine Drive to the Wankhede Stadium.
“Join us for the Victory Parade honouring Team India’s World Cup win! Head to Marine Drive and Wankhede Stadium on July 4th from 5:00 pm onwards to celebrate with us! Save the date! #TeamIndia,” BCCI secretary Jay Shah wrote on X.
Elaborate security arrangements are being made with the help of local police to facilitate the victory parade with over 1 lakh people expected to congregate to cheer their heroes.
On Wednesday, the Indian squad, stranded for three days in Barbados due to the shutdown caused by Hurricane Beryl, finally took a charter flight with a call sign AIC24WC (Air India Champions 24 World Cup) that took off at around 5am local time.
Following the parade in Mumbai, a felicitation function will be held at the Wankhede Stadium where BCCI will hand over a winning bonus totalling ₹125 crore to be divided between players, support staff and the national selectors.
The Indian team ended a 11-year ICC trophy drought – they last won the Champions Trophy in 2013 – with an unbeaten run of eight wins (Canada league tie was washed out). It culminated with a seven-run victory over South Africa in the final.
There were several heroes who got India over the line in the title showdown. Virat Kohli, whose 76 resurrected the Indian innings from 34/3, helped them post a competitive 176.
Axar Patel’s brisk 47 and 1/49 kept India in the game. Jasprit Bumrah, the player of the tournament, squeezed the scoring rate and produced a crucial breakthrough by removing Marco Jansen after South Africa had looked on course, needing 30 runs off 30 balls.
Hardik Pandya bowled the all-important last over with South Africa needing 16 runs to win. He dismissed the dangerous David Miller first ball to a spectacular catch on the rope by Suryakumar Yadav and broke South African hearts, extending their wait for a first World Cup win after they had been cruising towards victory.
