It has been a topsy turvy year for Indian cricket team all-rounder Hardik Pandya. He had a disappointing IPL 2024 outing with Mumbai Indians in his first season as their captain and was even booed by a section of the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium. However, he staged a stunning comeback in the T20 World Cup 2024 as he emerged as one of the top performers for the side. Hardik produced brilliant performances – both with bat and ball – as India went on to clinch the T20 World Cup 2024 title after beating South Africa in the final. The Indian cricket team is all set to end their victory celebration with a felicitation ceremony at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday and a video from the venue showed the crowd chanting Hardik’s name in a massive turnaround of the mood during IPL 2024.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said he had a memorable conversation with the members of T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team, discussing their journey at the recently-concluded ICC event in USA and the Caribbean.
The Rohit Sharma-led side, that won the T20 World Cup by defeating South Africa last week, arrived in Delhi early morning after being stranded in Bridgetown, Barbados due to category 4 hurricane.
“An excellent meeting with our Champions! Hosted the World Cup winning team at 7, LKM and had a memorable conversation on their experiences through the tournament,” Modi posted on ‘X’ along with pictures.
The team landed in Delhi amid much fanfare before heading to the Prime Minister’s residence for breakfast, where they spent close to two hours.
The Prime Minister’s Office had earlier shared an over minute-long video where the players were seen engaging in a hearty chat, sitting in a circle around Modi.
Captain Rohit Sharma was to the right of PM Modi while head coach Rahul Dravid was to his left.
The players wore special customised jerseys with the world ‘CHAMPIONS’ written in bold letters on the front and two stars, denoting two T20 World Cup titles, above the Team India crest on the top left corner. All of them were seen flashing smiles as they chatted with the PM. The players also posed for picture with the PM.
On the occasion, BCCI president Roger Binny and secretary Jay Shah presented the Prime Minister with a customised Team India jersey with ‘NAMO’ and ‘1’ inscribed on it in bold.
(With PTI inputs)
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