“Thank you Mumbai, thank you India” – Hardik Pandya thanks fans for braving rains to celebrate historic evening with 2024 T20 World Cup champions

India vice-captain Hardik Pandya expressed 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. The star all-rounder thanked the local crowd for braving the rain and waiting hours to watch the victory parade at Marine Drive and the felicitation ceremony at Wankhede Stadium.

During the event, Pandya received one of the loudest cheers from the fans for his performance at the mega ICC event. Interestingly, the Mumbai crowd booed him during his flop show for five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) during the recent edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

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,” he added.

Hardik Pandya scored 144 runs in six innings at a strike rate of 151.57, including a half-century at the 2024 T20 World Cup. With the ball, he scalped 11 wickets in eight matches at an economy rate of 7.64. The pacer finished with figures of 3/20 in the tournament final against South Africa.

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“Hats off to him” – Rohit Sharma lauds Hardik Pandya for last-over heroics in 2024 T20 World Cup final

India captain Rohit Sharma reserved special praise for Hardik Pandya for his heroics in the last over against David Miller in the 2024 T20 World Cup final. The 37-year-old 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."

Rohit continued:

“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.”

Hardik Pandya defended 16 runs in the last over as India beat the Proteas by seven runs in the summit clash.