Seven months ago, the man from Mumbai was distraught as he left the field, teary eyed, after India lost in the final of the ODI World Cup at Ahmedabad.Since lifting the trophy in Bridgetown last Saturday, the smile hasn’t left his face. It continued Thursday as well, as he led the celebrations and soaked in the jubilant atmosphere in his hometown, on his home turf.
One would have thought the team would be tired after a long flight from Barbados to Delhi for a meeting with PM Narendra Modi and then to Mumbai but as Rohit said that “he wants to enjoy every minute, every second of it” and the rest of the pack followed.
He enjoyed to the fullest as he led the team onto the field to a vociferous reception from those present in the stadium, who had waited patiently since 4pm. He was the first one to break into a jig to dhol tasha group giving their all in the MCA Pavilion. Virat Kohli then dragged him closer to them and then the entire team followed. The Wankhede isn’t the biggest stadium in the country but the electric atmosphere it produces is unmatched. It was no different on Thursday as well.
The cheers were loudest for Rohit’s captaincy, Kohli’s tenacity, Bumrah‘s accuracy, Surya’s that catch and Pandya’s allround performance. Once the speeches and the handing of Rs125cr cheque was done, the team went on a victory lap.
In 2007, the open bus parade from the airport took almost six hours to reach Wankhede and brought Western part of the city to a standstill. Then skipper MS Dhoni had said that “he didn’t realise how big the win was until he came out of the airport”.
This time around, the distance was shorter, but the enthusiasm among the fans was the same. This time the Southern tip of the city was brought to a standstill. Rohit had urged the fans to join the celebrations through a post on X and they obliged. The scenes matched, if not bettered, those of the 2007 parade and the 2011 ODI World Cup triumph at the same venue.
Earlier, the mad rush one witnessed to reach Marine Drive and the Wankhede summed up the pull the Indian cricket team generates. The hot and humid conditions, odd showers in between, the delayed start and packed to brim ‘Queen’s Necklace’ and stadium didn’t matter to Blue Army as they took vantage points to catch a glimpse of the team who had finally returned to the Indian shores in the wee hours on Thursday after being stuck in Barbados.
There was pandemonium as fans poured out from the Churchgate station. Not even during peak hours one of the busiest stations of the Western Railway would have witnessed such scenes.
They started to fill the Wankhede as soon as the gates were thrown open, making a dash towards the stands. In the helter-skelter many lost their slippers, shoes, floaters but that didn’t matter. The gates were closed just before 5pm and 30,000-odd people waited patiently. Why wouldn’t they? After all, it was the closest a common man could get to their heroes and be a part of something special. They were ready with their phones to click, record, post.
While Team India made their way to the stadium through ‘packed to the brim’ Marine Drive, fans in the stadium were kept entertained by the DJ.
