India’s wait of 17 years to win their second T20 World Cup title and 11 years to win an ICC trophy ended on Saturday in Barbados. India won the finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup against The Proteas by a margin of just seven runs. Rohit Sharma won the World T20 title as a player in 2007 and now he won it as the skipper of Team India in 2024.
But now India’s two of the finest T20I players will not feature in any of the further matches of the shortest format because the former skippers of the Men in Blue will retire from the twenty overs format. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were the openers for India in this edition of the shortest format.
HITMAN had scored three fifties while King Kohli stepped up in the finals which allowed India to post 176 runs on the board. Virat was part of the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup of the fifty-overs format and the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. This World Cup win for Kohli was the first one as a player in the shortest format. HITMAN and The King are the highest run-getters for India in the T20 World Cup history and overall matches played in the T20 Internationals.
However, now India needs to look ahead as the next T20 World Cup is in 2026 which is just two years away and India has a chance of creating another history in that edition of the shortest format. India and Sri Lanka will jointly host the next World Cup event of the shortest format. As per the records, no teams have defended their crown in the T20 World Cups and no host country has won this title till now.
India will go in that ICC mega event of the shortest format as the defending champions and they are also the co-host of that edition. So here is the chance for India to be the first team to defend their crown and at the same time also become the first host nation to win this ICC mega event of the shortest format in 2026.
Shubman Gill To Lead In Zimbabwe For A Five Match Series Of The Shortest Format –
India’s next T20I assignment after the T20 World Cup 2024 is the tour of Zimbabwe. The Men in Blue will play a series of five matches in the shortest format and all the games will be played at the Harare Sports Club in Harare. Shubman Gill will be the skipper of the shortest format for that series which will start from Saturday, 6th July 2024.
Gill was also the leader of the Gujarat Titans team in the Indian Premier League. He did a decent job as the skipper of that franchise in the 2024 edition of the cash-rich league tournament. But his IPL franchise, who were the runners-up in the previous season of 2023 and the champions in the 2022 edition didn’t qualify for the playoffs.
Still, Shubman’s captaincy skills received a lot of appreciation, which may be why he was selected as the skipper for this series against Zimbabwe. India will also play the shortest format series in Sri Lanka and South Africa. Shubman should be allowed to showcase his captaincy skills and build more experience before the next World Cup of the shortest format is played.
India will travel to South Africa again and this time the tour is for just the shortest format series which will be played in November 2024. This series of the T20I format is sandwiched between the home series versus New Zealand and the Test match tour of Australia. Last time in 2023, India played a series of the shortest format.
India had successfully drawn that series under the leadership skills of Suryakumar Yadav. The first game of that three-match series was abandoned due to the rains and the Proteas won the next match. But SKY and his men bounce back to win the third match of that series of the shortest format to square the three-match series to one all.
India will be eyeing to win the series this time in the Proteas Nation, who were also the runners-up of the recently ended T20 World Cup 2024. The Blues are expected to do well against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka as well. But for the T20I series versus the Asian T20 Champions, Sri Lanka and South Africa, India hasn’t announced the squad.
According to the reports, the Sri Lankan series will start from 27th July 2024. India will also play a three-match series of the fifty overs format on this tour of the island nation and Rohit Sharma may lead the ODI side in that series. Then India’s tour of South Africa will begin on Friday, 8th November 2024 at Kingsmead in Durban.
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