Both Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya opened up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about their struggles in the lead-up to India's historic title triumph at ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The victorious Indian team met PM Modi at his official residence 7, Lok Kalyan Marg in New Delhi on Thursday, July 4. (Victory Parade Highlights | Full T20 WC Coverage)
Pandya spoke about the vicious trolling he was subjected to during the Indian Premier League, where he replaced Rohit Sharma as the Mumbai Indians captain in the 2024 season. Kohli highlighted his poor run of scores in the T20 World Cup ahead of the final, stating that he "did not have that much confidence" going into the summit clash.
Referring to all the jeers he was subjected to at Wankhede Stadium and elsewhere during IPL 2024, Pandya said: "...Last 6 months have been very entertaining for me, there have been a lot of ups and downs and the public booed me. A lot of things happened and I always felt that if I give any answer, it would be through sports... So I believed that I would stay strong, will work hard..."
Kohli spoke with candour about his lacklustre form in the first seven games of the T20 World Cup. "Thank you very much for calling us all here and this day will always remain in my mind because in this entire tournament, I was not able to make the contribution that I wanted to and at one time I also told Rahul (Dravid) bhai that I have not given justice to both myself and the team till now," he said.
"So he told me that when the situation comes, I am sure that you will come into form. This conversation happened between us and when we went to play, I told Rohit, I did not have that much confidence that I would be able to bat the way I wanted to.
"But when we went to play, I got three fours in the first four balls, so I went and told him, 'what kind of a game is this, one day it seems that not even a single run will be scored and then another day comes and everything starts happening'..." Kohli added.
You can watch the full video of PM Modi's interaction with the Indian cricket team below.
Meanwhile, Modi spoke about India's influence on the Afghanistan cricket team, which competed in its maiden World Cup semi-finals (20-over and 50-over) in this edition.
"An Afghanistan minister made an interesting statement. They got the opportunity to face South Africa (in the semi-finals); their campaign was a highly successful one. But they credited India for this success, saying that Afghanistan's progress in the cricket arena has been aided by India," the PM said.
Modi was likely referring to the remarks of Taliban's head of political office Suhail Shaheen, who had told WION that "we are thankful for India’s continuous help in capacity building of the Afghan Cricket Team; we really appreciate that," after the Afghan outfit entered the last-four stage.
