New Delhi: Former India batter Mohammad Kaif termed pacer Jasprit Bumrah as the “biggest factor” in Men in Blue’s T20 World Cup triumph adding that captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid played a huge role in picking a balanced team for the tournament.
India defeated South Africa by seven runs in the summit clash in Barbados to clinch their second T20 glory after 2007. It also ended the country’s 11-year-long drought for the ICC trophy.
Bumrah finished with 15 wickets in nine matches and bagged the Player of the Tournament accolade, while Rohit finished as the highest run-getter for India and second-highest overall with 257 runs including three half-centuries.
“The biggest factor was Jasprit Bumrah, beating Pakistan gave them a lot of confidence in the T20 World Cup. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid picked a very balanced team. The team planning was really good. Ajit Agarkar also gave full support to the coach and captain. People questioned Virat Kohli, but he played crucial innings when needed the most,” Kaif told IANS.
The 43-year-old praised Rohit for his leadership skills and Indian players for swiftly accommodating to different conditions in the USA and the West Indies to emerge as T20 world champions.
“All the tactical moves fitted well for India. People doubted Rohit and Virat but the team backed them and they proved their mettle on the big occasion. Rohit has done a lot for India as a captain in three years. He opened the innings, set the momentum of the game and guided his team to play at the same tempo. It was the most difficult World Cup as they had to play in two different conditions in the same tournament.
“New York had a seaming track but in the West Indies, it was slow and turning. It had never happened before in any World Cup. It was very challenging. We played all our matches in the day which was not easy to accommodate as our players are used to playing under lights during the IPL,” he said.
Kaif added that having three all-rounders in the playing 11 including Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube gave them a lot of advantages to tweak their batting order. He also highlighted Virat Kohli’s crucial contribution of 76 runs in the final after a series of low scores in the campaign. The veteran cricketer was happy with the fact that all three — Dravid, Rohit and Kohli — signed off with silverware.
“Rahul Dravid has also learned, he was not born coach. As a captain in the 2007 World Cup, under his leadership, we were knocked out of the ODI World Cup in West Indies. He also wanted to redeem himself in the West Indies this time. Dravid did splendid work as a coach,” Kaif said.
“His previous coaching stints in IPL were also not good. He learned from his mistakes. He did a superb job by adding three all-rounders to our squad. In the World Cup, Axar Patel made Virat Kohli’s job easy. He did all that work as a coach. He gave freedom to Rohit Sharma to take his calls. I was very happy that Dravid, Rohit and Virat signed off with a title,” he concluded.
