There were many heart-warming moments following India's T20 World Cup win on Sunday night. There was one that caught the eye in particular. It was the meeting of two former Indian T20 World-Cup winning players.
It was the meeting of two-time T20 World Cup-winner Rohit Sharma and 2007 T20 World Cup winner and now Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir. A video from Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium has gone viral in which one can see Gambhir walking towards Rohit and hugging him thereafter. ICC President Jay Shah was also there, and later he also became part of the embrace.
This highlights one very important aspect of the Indian cricket culture where players, current or former, have utmost respect for each other. Very rarely does one hear an unpalatable remark from one Indian cricketer to another. 2007 T20 World Cup-winning captain MS Dhoni was also in attendance as India thrashed New Zealand by 96 runs.
Dhoni buries personal differences!
Gambhir has however, been critical of Dhoni in the past, one of the very few examples of such instances in Indian cricket. Gambhir and a couple of players like Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh have criticised Dhoni in the past, blaming him for a premature end to their international careers after the high of the 2011 World Cup win.
But Dhoni, a legend in Indian cricket, displayed a big heart on Sunday night and praised Gambhir not a little. In an Instagram post, the former India captain, the only one to date to win all three ICC white-ball events, wrote: "History gets created at Ahmedabad, big congratulations to the team and support staff and to all the fans of Indian Cricket Team worldwide. Such a pleasure to see all of u play. Coach Sahab's smile looks great on u, intensity with smile is a killer combo, very well done. enjoy guys(BUMRAH ke baare mein kuch na likhoon tou hi acha hai.CHAMPION BOWLER)."
It was another of many heart-warming moments that took place on Sunday night. Rohit, who retired from T20Is after leading India to the 2024 T20 World Cup win, still plays ODIs and aims to play the next year's 50-overs World Cup, the only white-ball trophy has eluded him to date. Who knows, maybe next year he will get another opportunity to hug the India head coach!