We have been here before. India are through to the final of a World Cup. The opponent is from the Southern Hemisphere. The India captain plays for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. The match is being played at the Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, and the nation is in a frenzy.
And to be fair, neither this team nor its fans have forgotten the hurt of the 2023 ODI World Cup final when Australia skipper Pat Cummins had said he wanted to silence the crowd on the eve of the game and proceeded to do just that on match day.
That silence doesn’t haunt this India team. But it certainly inspires them. When asked, even as early as November 2025, which team he would like to face in a hypothetical final clash in the ICC T20 World Cup, skipper Suryakumar Yadav replied promptly: “Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad, Australia.”
He almost got what he wished for. New Zealand are the closest cricketing neighbour Australia have, and the Kiwis would love nothing more than to get one up over their TransTasman rivals.
But as impressive as Mitch Santner and his team were in the semi-final win against South Africa, they will know that this match is about India.
“We’re never usually given a chance to even be in the semi-finals and we’re always there, so we’re always David,” NZ allrounder Glenn Phillips told reporters ahead of their practice session on Friday.
But for India, the stakes are also figuratively and literally bigger. The stream of fans kitted in blue jerseys who trudge for an hour to reach Motera will want nothing less than a win. That expectation will weigh heavily in the air and each setback will feel bigger than what it really is. The best strategy, therefore, would be to get ahead and stay there.
For Surya and his team, this match will be another chance to show that the lessons imparted by Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been learnt. Indeed, India’s dominance in ICC’s white-ball tournaments has been quite something of late: 2023 ODI World Cup finalists, 2024 T20 world champions, 2025 Champions Trophy winners, 2025 Women’s ODI champions, 2026 U-19 world champions.
All this winning means that the Indian team has confidence. When one doesn’t fire, the others do. The belief that there’s always someone there to pick up the slack is important in a format such as T20 cricket, where you are expected to maintain a high tempo at all times.
In many ways, this has already been a dream tournament for some. Suryakumar helped India avoid the early blushes, Jasprit Bumrah worked up a regular dose of magic, Hardik Pandya brought the chutzpah, Ishan Kishan the swagger, Shivam Dube the hulking power, Sanju Samson got his timing right… heroes all but as they enter the final, they’ll know this isn’t a typical match. What they have done so far matters, but only if they can do it in the summit clash as well.
“We started this journey two years ago, and the circle has come back to the same stadium again where we left in 2023,” Suryakumar said on Saturday. “Be courageous in tough situations — that’s the simple message to the team.”
The clammy hands, the butterflies in the stomach and the desperation to succeed will all be felt on the day. There’ll be the pressure players put on themselves and the pressure that they’ll 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,” said Suryakumar.
But through this period, it will be their street smarts that will carry them through. This is where you introspect — where you have come from, how you got here, but also about the lessons that you have learnt along the way that made you the player that you have become.
The New Zealand way has been to find a talent and polish it until it shines. In India, the onus is on the cricketer since there are so many more coming through the pipeline. You have to find yourself before Indian cricket can.
To come through the talent factory that is India and make it to the national team already marks each one of these players as a special talent. But what truly sets this generation apart is that they just don’t want to win… they want to rule. And now, just one team stands between them and their dream.
So, welcome to Motera. It can be your hell, or perhaps you can make it your heaven.
