Ahmedabad: India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya spoke on his journey from facing adversities in life to winning back-to-back T20 World Cup trophies. Pandya said winning the 2026 T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad is a testament to the promise he made to himself – to win trophies for India and take his team to the top. They made a brilliant comeback in the 2024 World Cup and won after 17 years.

Pandya said, “When we returned home after winning the T20 World Cup in 2024, I was personally facing a lot of difficulties. Before that tournament, many things were not going right in my life, and things were not going my way. Before the 2024 World Cup, I was determined that I had to make a comeback. I wanted my comeback to be strong. I did so and helped my team get the trophy after 17 years. This in Ahmedabad. With the win, it is a fulfillment of the promise I made to myself that I have to perform well for my country and win all the trophies for India.”

“After the win in Barbados, I promised myself that whatever tournament I play, I will play to win and lift the trophy. This win against New Zealand in Ahmedabad is the fulfillment of that promise. And this is just the beginning,” he added.

India successfully defended their T20 World Cup trophy by defeating Mitchell Santner-led New Zealand by 96 runs. With this win, India set a record for winning the World Cup at home, and also became the first team to win the World Cup twice in a row. India has so far become the first team to win the T20 World Cup thrice (2007, 2024, 2026).

Pandya had a stellar performance in the T20 World Cup 2026, scoring 217 runs in 9 innings at an average of 27.12 and a strike rate of 160.74, which included two half-centuries. Apart from this, the 32-year-old star all-rounder also performed brilliantly for India in bowling, taking 9 wickets in 9 matches, with his best performance being 2/16.

Talking about the match, New Zealand won the toss and allowed India to bat first. The explosive innings of Sanjeev (89 runs, 46 balls, 5 fours and 8 sixes), Abhishek Sharma (52 runs, 21 balls, 6 fours and 3 sixes), Ishan Kishan (54 runs, 25 balls, 4 fours and 4 sixes) and Shivam Dubey (26* runs, 8 balls, 3 fours and 2 sixes) took India to 255/5. Delivered.

After this, despite a half-century from Tim Seifert (52 runs, 26 balls, 2 fours and 5 sixes), New Zealand had to accept defeat in front of the brilliant performance of Axar Patel (3/27) and Jasprit Bumrah (4/15). With this win, India won their third T20 World Cup trophy, and also defended the World Cup for the first time. India became the first host team to win this trophy.

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