Exclusive: In India's Big Bang Win, Veterans Revisit 1983 Glory; Sandhu Equates Surya's Catch With Kapil's 83 Grab, Rajput Lauds Team Effort

India ended their ICC drought after 11 years by winning the T20 World Cup 2024 in West Indies. The Indian Cricket Team beat South Africa by 7 runs to emerge victorious. ETV Bharat's Nikhil Bapat catches up with former India players Balwinder Singh Sandhu and Lalchand Rajput, who sum up the mood after India's win, reminiscing the team's 1983 World Cup win under Kapil Dev's captaincy.

Hyderabad: Former India players Balwinder Singh Sandhu, who was part of the 1983 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team, and Lalchand Rajput lauded the Indian Cricket Team for winning the T20 World Cup.

The Rohit Sharma-led team defeated South Africa by 7 runs in a pulsating summit clash to win the T20 World Cup for the second time.

Speaking to ETV Bharat over the phone, Balwinder Singh Sandhu said, "It is a great win, superb win, it was a total team effort. Virat (Kohli) played a superb match-winning innings. And Surya took that catch, a brilliant catch, just like Kapil's catch and it will be remembered forever."

"Congratulations to everyone for this great victory," he quipped. Asked if the win made him recall the memories of the 1983 win, Sandhu stated, "No, I do not live in the past, I just enjoy my present and I enjoyed the game yesterday. The past his history and I do not go back to my past."

Former India player Lalchand Rajput, who was cricket-manager, when India won the inaugural T20 World Cup told ETV Bharat, "It was the best victory, we had so far, because the game was swinging either way and at 15 overs, it was anybody's game, because (Heinrich) Klassen was batting superbly. But that one over of (Jasprit Bumrah) when he got (Marco) Jansen out, then Klassen got out, still in the last three overs, they need 20 odd runs."

"But Suryakumar (Yadav's) catch, turned the game altogether. I would say that catch was a World Cup-winning catch," he quipped.

For Lalchand Rajput, the game in Barbados reminded him of the 2007 T20 World Cup final when the then Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side, edged past Pakistan.

"100 per cent, we always rewind and we got all the memories back. If you look at that time, they were also hungry, they were also wanting to win desperately and that showed on the ground and at any stage they did not give up," he added.

Rajput also gave credit to South Africa for batting well. "In the end, India was destined to win that, we were very hungry for that win," added Rajput, who is the current head coach of the United Arab Emirates.

Rajput, who has also coached teams like Afghanistan and Zimbabwe, also felt that the win would inspire many budding cricketers.

"Any World Cup win will inspire the younger generation and this (win) will go in history, we have won the T20 World Cup after 17 years, so now the youngster will look back and say if they had done it, we can do it and this will be a very big inspiration for the younger lot," concluded Rajput.