When a seemingly invincible India take on a battered Sri Lanka in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 on Thursday, November 2, they will no doubt remember what happened when the two nations last locked horns at the same venue in 2011. The Wankhede Stadium was host to an unforgettable culmination of an incredible campaign, which saw India lifting the ODI World Cup again after 28 long years. (Scorecard | Match Blog | Preview | Streaming)
It also saw a then young Virat Kohli lifting Sachin Tendulkar on his shoulders, as the former India great walked into the sunset secure with the knowledge that he, too, had tasted World Cup glory. Twelve years hence, things have changed a lot, yet fundamentally remained the same. A statue of Tendulkar was unveiled at the Wankhede on the eve of the India vs Sri Lanka game in this year's tournament. Meanwhile, a now 34-year-old Kohli is carrying India on his shoulders, this time.
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Back to that fateful evening of April 2, 2011. Numerous images from that momentous occasion are imprinted on Indian cricket lovers' minds, but none more clearly than that of captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni lofting Sri Lanka medium-pacer Nuwan Kulasekara way over long-on, into the stands. The massive six brought the entire stadium to raptures and non-striker Yuvraj Singh to tears and on his knees, but barely evoked a change in facial expressions of the one who hit it.
Dhoni stood frozen, eyeing the soaring ball and taking a mental snapshot of that immortal moment. Even as an overwhelmed-with-emotion Yuvraj Singh rushed to hug his captain, Dhoni stood pensively, feeling it all inside. Thinking of what it meant to rise like a phoenix - from an unheralded Ranchi boy to India's second ODI World Cup-winning captain after the legendary Kapil Dev.
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The wait to lift the hallowed trophy again after the unprecedented triumph of 1983 had finally ended, and pent-up emotions burst like a dam as the Indian team ran out onto the ground. Nobody slept that night, certainly none of the Indians involved. As broadcasters spoke to the victorious team's players about what they felt, a common refrain was that they "did it for Sachin".
When asked about the motivation for carrying Tendulkar on his shoulders, Kohli pithily put: "He has carried the burden of the nation for 21 years; it was time we carried him." It has now been 15 years that the superstar cricketer and Indian batting mainstay has been essaying the very same role for the country.
Kohli is the only player on either side to have stood the test of time since the 2011 World Cup final, and come Thursday afternoon, he will be as motivated as ever to relive those evocative moments and help take India to a historic third hurrah, before it is time for him to hang up his boots.
