After winning the T20 World Cup 2024, the Indian Cricket Team has been stranded in Barbados due to a Hurricane warning.
Team India Trapped in Barbados
After an epic win in the T20 World Cup 2024, the Indian cricket team was stuck in Barbados as the airport was shut down as the hurricane is expected to pass on Sunday night at local time.
Hurricane Beryl is expected to pass the region with the center of the storm 80 miles off the South Coast. The Hurricane strengthened into category 04 and became extremely dangerous on Sunday. With the Indian team initially planning to return to India, the airport has been closed since Sunday evening due to bad weather. But the South Africa team has left earlier on Sunday. Currently, the India team is staying at the Hilton Hotel.
BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said that the Board is planning to congratulate the team for the Victory after the team reaches India. “Like you, we are also stuck here. After the travel plans are clear, we will think about the felicitation,” Shah told reporters in Barbados.
He also spoke about India having a new head coach from the Sri Lanka Tour later this month but did not reveal the name to succeed Rahul Dravid.
With Former cricketer Gautam Gambhir as be frontrunner for the role, the Cricket Advisory Committee has conducted the interviews for the post and shortlisted Gambhir and former India women’s coach WV Raman.
“Both coach and selector appointments will be made shortly,” said Jay Shah. “CAC has interviewed and shortlisted two names and after reaching Mumbai whatever they have decided we will go by that. VVS Laxman is going to Zimbabwe but a new coach will join from the Sri Lanka series.”
He also praised senior batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohl in the finals against South Africa where the men in blues won by 7 runs. Right after the victory, Virat Kohli announced his T20I retirement. Following that Rohit Sharma also announced his T20I retirement.
All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja also joined them with his retirement announcement. “It was the same captain last year and the same here in Barbados. We won all games except the final in 2023 [ODI World Cup] as Australia played better. This time we worked even harder and played better to win the title,” Shah said.
“If you look at other teams, experience counts. From Rohit to Virat, all excelled. Experience makes a lot of difference. In World Cups, you can’t experiment much also. A good player knows when to say goodbye to the game, we saw that yesterday. You look at Rohit’s strike rate, it is better than a lot of young players.”
After suffering back-to-back defeats in the finals of the ICC tournaments, India pulled out victory in the finals of the T20 World Cup and Jay Shah wants to continue the winning streak.
“I would want India to win all the titles. We have the biggest bench strength, only three players from this team are going to Zimbabwe. We can field three teams if the need arises,” he said.
“The way this team is progressing, our target is to win the World Test Championship final and Champions Trophy. There will be a similar squad playing there. The seniors will be there.”
With the retirement of Rohit Sharma, there are chances for Hardik Pandya to take over the captaincy. “Captaincy will be decided by the selectors and we will announce it after discussing it with them. You asked about Hardik, there were a lot of questions over his form but the selectors showed faith in him and he proved himself.”
India’s next assignment will travel to Zimbabwe for a T20I series which is set to begin on Jule 06 at Harare Sports Club.
