Kamal Ghorui
Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni brought out the trophy at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup final in Ahmedabad on Sunday, drawing a loud response from the crowd at the Narendra Modi Stadium.Dhoni had led India to the first T20 World Cup title in 2007, while Rohit captained the side to their second title in the 2024 edition.Earlier, New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to field against India in the title match against New Zealand.New Zealand reached the final after defeating South Africa in the semifinal. India secured a seven-run win over England in Mumbai to book their place in the final.In T20 World Cup meetings between the two sides, New Zealand hold the edge with wins in 2007, 2016 and 2021.India, however, are chasing several milestones in the final. The side is aiming to become the first host to win the T20 World Cup, the first team to defend the title and the first to win the tournament three times.For New Zealand, the task will be to contain India’s batting order and deal with the bowling of Jasprit Bumrah.“Happy to bat first since we have been doing that pretty well. Always good to have runs on the board in the semifinal or a final. It’s history now, new World Cup, and we are excited for it. It looks full already, and it’s only toss time, and hopefully we will give them a good show. Same team for us,” India captain Suryakumar Yadav said at the toss.“We are going to bowl first. Looks pretty good. We will see if it does anything and try to restrict them to a chasable score. Boys are good. This is why we are playing. It did. Great occasion, the semifinal and the guys will take confidence from that. This is the biggest stage, and everyone is ready. No, McConchie, Duffy is playing,” Santner said.India are playing their fourth T20 World Cup final, the most by any team. Out of the previous nine finals, six were won by the side chasing. Of the remaining three, India won two — in 2007 and 2024 — both in matches decided in the final over.TeamsIndia (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah.New Zealand (Playing XI): Tim Seifert (wk), Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner (c), Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Jacob Duffy.
