Team India: Exactly one week ago, the Men in Blue lifted their second T20 World Cup title in the edition of 2024 twenty overs WC, which was hosted by the United States Of America (USA) and West Indies. Team India is the only side in the world to lift the World T20 Trophy without losing any matches.
The Men in Blue won this year’s T20 World Cup after 17 years and Team India won an ICC title after 11 years. India reached the two ICC finals last year and they lost both of them versus the mighty Aussies, which was heartbreaking for the cricket fans of India, where this game is like a religion.
But in this year’s finals, Rohit Sharma and his men defeated South Africa in Barbados. In the 2007 T20 World Cup finals, India also had a close win over Pakistan at Johannesburg and last week’s final was also a thriller against South Africa, which Team India won by a margin of just seven runs.
Today in this segment, we shall mention the five coaches who helped Team India to be the World Champions during their coaching stints –
1. PR Man Singh – The former player and administrator of Indian Cricket, PR Man Singh was the manager of Team India when The Blues lifted their first-ever ICC Title in 1983 under the leadership of Kapil Dev. No one thought that this team under Kapil Paaji would win the World Cup of the fifty-overs format.
But Team India had the self-belief to do well and win their first-ever ODI World Cup trophy. Team India had defeated the giant West Indies twice in that tournament and also defended a smallish score of 183 runs in the finals and that too against a batting wizard team of the two World Cup winners side like the West Indies.
2. Lalchand Rajput – Before India clinched their first ever T20 World Cup title in 2007 in South Africa, Team India had a torrid time in the fifty-overs World Cup. They had an early exit from that tournament when the legends were part of the squad. Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, MS Dhoni, Zaheer Khan and many others were in that squad.
But still, India lost to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in their group matches and they had to leave the tournament very early than expected. Greg Chappell was Team India’s coach during the 2007 ODI World Cup. However, under Lalchand Rajput, India did well in the Test series on England soil.
India won the red ball series in England when Rahul Dravid was the captain of Team India and then under the leadership skills of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Lalchand Rajput was the manager of the Men in Blue in their first-ever T20 World Cup triumph in the Proteas Nation in 2007.
3. Gary Kirsten – India’s wait to lift their second ODI World Cup trophy was under MS Dhoni and the former South African batter, Gary Kirsten was the coach of Team India. The 2011 fifty overs World Cup was also the last one for the cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar.
India was the first host country to win an ODI World Cup at home in 2011. MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir played extremely well in the finals versus Sri Lanka at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. India had lost Sehwag and Sachin quite early in a run chase. But Kohli, Gambhir and Dhoni didn’t let their fans down and helped the team to reclaim the glory after the 1983 ODI World Cup win at Lords.
4. Duncan Fletcher – The former player from Zimbabwe, Duncan Fletcher was the coach of Team India when MSD lifted his third ICC Title and he became the only captain to win all three ICC tournaments. In 2013, Team India won the Champions Trophy in England and Wales. India won the finals versus the host England by five runs to clinch their second CT.
5. Rahul Dravid – Team India’s latest ICC Title came in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2024. Rohit Sharma urged Rahul Dravid to continue as the coach of the Men in Blue over a phone call, which Dravid has mentioned as the best phone conversation of his life. The Wall wanted to end his coaching stint in November after India’s loss in the ODI World Cup 2023 finals.
However, that phone call between Rohit and Rahulo changed the destiny of India as they became the T20 World Cup Champions for the second time. Dravid had never won a World Cup trophy as a player or a captain of Team India. But his coaching stint had ended with a World Cup win in Barbados.
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