India vice-captain Hardik Pandya showed his gratitude to the fans for coming in large numbers to celebrate with the 2024 T20 World Cup champions in Mumbai on Thursday, July 4. He also thanked the local crowd for braving the rain and waiting for hours to watch the victory parade at Marine Drive and the felicitation ceremony at Wankhede Stadium as well.
Pandya, who led the Mumbai-based franchise in IPL 2024, wrote on X: “India, you mean the world to me! From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all the love.. these are moments that I will never ever forget! Thank you for coming out to celebrate with us, despite the rains! We love you so much! Celebrating with you is why we do what we do! We’re all champions! All 1.4 billion of us! Thank you Mumbai, thank you India.”
However, Hardik Pandya scored 144 runs in six innings which came at a strike rate of 151.57, including a half-century at the 2024 T20 World Cup as well. With the ball, he claimed 11 wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 7.64. The pacer finished with figures of 3/20 in the final against South Africa.
Meanwhile, India captain Rohit Sharma also praised Hardik Pandya for his heroics in the last over against David Miller in the 2024 T20 World Cup final as well. He also credited Suryakumar Yadav for the match-winning catch. He said (via Jio Cinema): “Hardik was bowling that crucial over for us. Hats off to him. No matter how many runs you need, there is almost always pressure to bowl that over. Hats off to him.“There was a lot of technical aspect of the game that we discussed in that last over because the wind was blowing the ground very quite heavily and we had a brief chant about what we wanted to do. Because we all know David Miller can be a very dangerous player and he has played that role to perfection in most of the time. Um, so we wanted to keep it away from him.”
“You know, then Hardik bowled that ball and then when it went up in the air. Obviously, for a moment, I thought because he hit with the wind. So I thought it may go.. But it was written everything was written so I’m glad that You know, it didn’t carry to the ground so much and for Surya to take that catch was exceptional,” he concluded.
