Mumbai: T20 World Cup-winning India all-rounder Hardik Pandya on Thursday put out a special video of him celebrating on the roof of the open-top bus, with a sea of cricket-loving fans cheering him, as it crawled through the Marine Drive here.
The video was taken during the victory parade organised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to celebrate the Indian team’s sensational triumph against South Africa in the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at Bridgetown, Barbados last week.
In his emotional message accompanying the video, Pandya said that “all 1.4 billion of us” are champions. He thanked the cricket fans for the love and said the players do what they do to celebrate with the fans.
“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!” wrote Pandya in his post on X, formerly Twitter.
“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,” said Hardik Pandya, dancing with gay abundance on the bus while holding the trophy in his hand.
The all-rounder from Gujarat had an emotional breakdown after helping India win the T20 World Cup in Barbados. Pandya had endured a horrible last six months, retiring with an injury from the Men’s ODI World Cup as Rohit Sharma’s team went on and lost to Australia in the final and getting booed and abused by fans during the IPL as the Mumbai Indians removed Rohit Sharma and made him their captain.
To help India win the World Cup by bowling a brilliant final over and getting cheered by a bigger crowd at the Wankhede brought out the emotions again.
–IANS