In the final of T20 World Cup 2024, Team India won the toss and decided to bat first. Team India did not make any changes in its playing eleven in the title battle. The opposing team South Africa has also fielded the same playing eleven. Rohit Sharma, after winning the toss, said that he wants to put pressure on the opponent by scoring a big score first. At the same time, South African captain Aiden Markram also said that he also wanted to bat first. However, the question here is that Team India has chosen to bat first on the Barbados pitch, is this the right decision? What does the record of the T20 World Cup final say?

History of T20 World Cup Finals

Rohit Sharma may have decided to bat first against South Africa but according to records, in the last four T20 World Cup title matches, the team batting later has won.

• In 2014, Sri Lanka chased the score against India.
• In 2016, West Indies won the title by chasing the score.
• In 2021, Australia achieved the distinction of becoming the champion by chasing the score against New Zealand.
• In 2022, England defeated Pakistan while chasing in the final.

Why did Rohit choose to bat first?

The reason for Rohit Sharma choosing to bat first is the Barbados pitch.

According to the pitch report, the pitch in Barbados becomes slow in the second innings, which makes it difficult to score runs on it. The South African captain also agreed to this. Also, in title matches, it is always better to bat first and score big and this is what Rohit did.

India's playing XI- Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dubey, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh and Jasprit Bumrah

South Africa's playing XI- Aiden Markram (captain), Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Norkhia and Tabrez Shamsi

South Africa's playing XI- Aiden Markram (captain), Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock, Heinrich Klaasen, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Norkhia and Tabrez Shamsi