Expressing his feeling about the grand celebration, Rohit said, “2007 was a different feeling. We started off in the afternoon and this is in the evening.I cannot forget 2007 as it was my first World Cup but this is a little more special because I was leading the team so it’s a very proud moment for me. This is going to be mad,” Rohit said in a video posted by the BCCI.
Hours before the team even landed in Mumbai from Delhi well past 5 pm, after having met PM Narendra Modi in the morning on touching down in the national capital, tens of thousands of cricket fans had flooded the route from the NCPA gates ignoring the showers, winding their way towards Wankhede which had been thrown open for a late-evening felicitation.
“You can make out the excitement, it shows how much it means not just to us but also to the entire nation it means a lot. So I am very happy that we could achieve something for them as well,” added the India Captain.
After the bus reached Wankhede, the team did a lap of honour amid resounding applause, with Rohit dedicating the T20 WC title “to the entire nation”.
“To bring the World Cup to the venue where India won the 2011 ODI World Cup is very special for us. I would not single out anyone but all the players played their role in this victory,” said Rohit to the crowd present at the Wankhede Stadium.
In 2007, the open bus parade from the airport took almost six hours to reach Wankhede and brought Western part of the city to a standstill. Then skipper MS Dhoni had said that “he didn’t realise how big the win was until he came out of the airport”.
This time around, the distance was shorter, but the enthusiasm among the fans was the same. This time the Southern tip of the city was brought to a standstill. Rohit had urged the fans to join the celebrations through a post on X and they obliged. The scenes matched, if not bettered, those of the 2007 parade and the 2011 ODI World Cup triumph at the same venue.