Abhishek Sharma & Sanju rise to glory

The last time India played a world cup final, India persisted with an out of form opener. The belief paid off as Virat Kohli top scored with an innings of 76. Into the final again, the defending champion had the same headache as the immensely talented Abhishek Sharma had to encounter failure after failure in the competition and his knocks were never taking off. The Indian management decided to retain him and it paid off. After a sedate and circumspect start, India scored 12 runs from the first two overs. Strangely, New Zealand took Matt Henry out of the attack and introduced Duffy and the over cost them 15.

There was no stopping India after that. Lockie Ferguson lost his line and length and leaked 24 as Abhishek started using his feet- a sign that he was returning to form. Even Matt Henry could not stop the tide as Abhishek carved him over long off and Sanju pulled him over the deep midwicket fence. India reaped 21 from the Henry over, followed by 20 off Jacob Duffy as the power play ended at a score of 92-0. Abhishek and Sanju were in full swing but the difference was the mindset and the plan- Sanju was happy to tap or drive down the ground to rotate the strike and Abhishek was effective in the way he dealt with New Zealand's ploy of bowling wide as he walked across and heaved the ball over square leg multiple times. Rachin Ravindra finally got Abhishek caught behind off a wide delivery for 52 off 21 balls. Ishan Kishan, coming in at number three smoothly batted his way into the innings as India finished the first half of the innings at 127-1, Sanju batting at 48 off 30. The stage was set for another 230 plus total.

Spinners were effective in containing but a few peculiar bowling changes by the New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner allowed no bowler to settle. Rachin Ravindra, who broke the opening partnership was brought back only in the 14th over. This allowed Ishan Kishan to ease into his innings. But this time, Sanju Samson turned a quite over into another big one by hitting three consecutive sixes. Though India lost three quick wickets and Hardik Pandya could not time the ball properly, Shivam Dube who should have batted up the order based on form, gave the impetus required at the end as India crossed the 250 mark.

New Zealand, having a herculean task at hand to score 256, had to go all guns blazing. But they never managed to get going with the bat and finally their innings folded for 159. Fittingly, Jasprit Bumrah finished with 4 wickets. Axar Patel was excellent with the ball and by the thirteenth over, India was firmly dominating the game with New Zealand having lost six for 124.

The Indian management and the selectors led by Ajit Agarkar should be given credit for selecting probably the best 15 available even though there were a lot of questions and eyebrows raised over several calls taken by them. Even during the world cup, Ishan Kishan was promoted up the order which probably disrupted the rhythm of Abhishek Sharma who was used to Sanju opening with him. Intelligently, India promoted Sanju again and it paid rich dividends. The Indian cricket board, selectors and the team management have been careful to avoid knee-jerk reactions like the Pakistan board for instance and this has kept Indian cricket in good stead over the past few years. India's trophy drought was largely due to their inability to cross the line at the knockout stage since 2016 and it ultimately led to a mental inhibition of sorts. By winning the 2024 T20 World Cup, India opened the door to a plethora of trophies and they have won both the global tournaments since then- the Champions Trophy in 2025 and the 2026 t20 World Cup, without counting the women's World cup and the Under 19 world cup. Indian cricket is going in the right direction with many more to come.