India beat South Africa by seven runs in Barbados to win the 2024 Men’s T20 World Cup. I thought it was fitting to have this week’s blog post showcase the confidence that this unbeaten team showed throughout the tournament. The following are quotes from two of the Indian team stars. . . .

Question: aakhri waqt pe gadbad ho rahi thi. Kya acchepan pe vishwas rakhna mushkil ho raha tha? Aur acche logo ke saath accha hona jaroori hai? Aap ho, team ho, Rahul Dravid ho? Kya yeh jaroori hai, Rohit?
Rohit Sharma: Jaroori tho hai. Mai believe karta hoon ki jo likha hai wo hone wala hai. I think yeh likha tha. Lekin obviously aapko pata nahin match ke pehle ki yeh likha hai. Yehi tho khel hai. Yehi game hai. Nahi tho ham log araam se aate. Ki likha hua hai jeetne waale hai. But everything has to fall in place. Aapne dekha ki ham bohut peeche thhe game ke. Eik time pe lag raha tha ke asaani se jeet jayenge woh log. Wicket bhi accha chal raha tha. Unki batting acche se ho rahi thi. Bumrah ka over 18th mei khatam ho gaya tha. Yeh sab cheej jaroori tha plan mei fit hona. Aur jaise aapne bola ki acche logo ke saath accha hota hai. Matlab aapne bol diya ke mei accha hoon. Aur Rahul Bhai bhi. Dekho mei bohut khush hoon Rahul bhai ke liye bhi. Unhone Indian cricket ke liye itna kuch kiya hai. . . . Unhone yeh cheej pe dhyan diya tha jab woh pehle aaye thhe ki hamko ladkon ko bataana hai ki unse ham kya chahte hai. Kyonki gyaara ke gyaara log force hai. Aur woh force agar milke khelenge tho eik bada force ban sakta hai.
– From the 2024 T20 World Cup post match press conference

Question: Rohit just that catch of Surya. Do you think that this catch is on par with Kapil’s 83 catch?
Rohit Sharma: Arre 83 mei itna accha hua hai. Usko rakho na udhar hi. Bohut badhiya catch thha woh. Yeh bhi apna catch hai. In hindsight if you look at it, every moment that happens, it has its own charm, own way. So, I don’t like to compare it. I’m not a big comparison fan.
– From the 2024 T20 World Cup post match press conference

Interviewer: Was there ever pressure on you because you are the lead bowler? Was there ever pressure on you that your four overs are the key moments and especially today when you came back for the 16th?
Jasprit Bumrah: I don’t look at it like that because, you know, whenever I’m at my peak mindset, I think of one ball at a time and one over at a time. If I think of the overall picture too early, I give in to the pressure and I try too hard sometimes.
– From the interview after winning the Player of the Series award

There is an old article by A.K. Ramanujan titled ‘Is there an Indian way of thinking?’ (Our blog post about it is here). The article argues that western cultures have context-free rules (man shall not tell an untruth) but Indian culture has context-sensitive rules (Man shall not tell an untruth unless angry, excessively joyful, very old, deluded, drunk etc.).

Our T20 win and what I am hearing Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah saying above leaves me wondering – Is there an Indian way of playing cricket? What do you think?