Test Match Special - The 2026 T20 World Cup Debrief

Episode Date: March 9, 2026

As the dust settles on India’s back-to-back T20 World Cup victories, Henry Moeran is alongside Matt Henry and Prakash Wakankar to discuss everything we can take away from the tournament. How did India triumph? How can we assess England’s performance? Plus, who dropped the worst catch of the tournament

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This isn't about quarterly earnings or about tech reviews. It's about what technology is actually doing to your work and your politics, your everyday life. And all the bizarre ways people are using the internet. Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Hello and welcome to the Test Match Special podcast. It is the morning after the night before here in Ahmed, India T20 World Cup champions again. And what a tournament, it has been 29 days, 55 matches at the end of it all,

the first side to retain the trophy, the first team to win it on a home soil as well. So much to discuss from what has been an enthralling month. You're listening to the TMS podcast. from BBC Radio 5 Live. Well, hello from steamy Armadabhan. Henry Moran here alongside BBC Sports, Matt Henry, and Prakash Wakanka as well. It is a day where India is waking up,

smiles on faces, headlines such as India standing alone at the top after a T20 World Cup win that delivered a storm of all-time records. That's what the Hindustan Times said from at the times of India. India win the T20 World Cup, one triumph, many heroes. T20 World Cup final a red letter day for Syria Kumar's men in blue. So many headlines to celebrate. What is a marvelous achievement and what a victory it was. Prakash, first of all to you, it was as good a day as India could have dreamt of.

96 runs is an outrageous margin of victory. It is. And I think in that sense, India did say, it seems their best for the last. It was the biggest margin of victory for India in the tournament, you would say. It was probably one of the most dominating wins. And in some ways, therefore,

maybe not quite the final people wanted, but I doubt if the majority of Indian supporters would have a problem with that because the result went their way and wiped out some of the memories of 23. Statistically speaking, it is their biggest victory in the history of T-20 World Cups,

and it's New Zealand's biggest. defeat as well. If you missed it, well, India smashed 255 for five and New Zealand beaten by 96 runs desperately trying to somehow give themselves a foothold in the game. Now, Matt, you were there in the bowels of the Narendra Modi Stadium until the wee hours, press conferences that came about quite a long time after the trophy lift, which was quite a long time after the end of the game. Yeah, I think Mitchell Santner turned up for his press conference maybe an hour and 15 minutes after the last ball, which is, it kind of been in a nice situation for him, I doubt.

There's a lot of standing around and waiting. We had light shows and various events going on, drone shows going on after play. But yeah, I think Mitchell sat there. He seemed quite matter-of-fact without meaning to be too down on New Zealand. They're a bit used to this situation, aren't they? They're used to losing finals. He's, well, New Zealand have lost ones in, what, 2015, 2019, 2021,

and then 24 in the Champions Trophy, yeah, 25 in the Champions Trophy, sorry. It's a fifth final and a fifth defeat in 11 years. Yeah, which is, obviously, has given them experience, of knowing how this feels. I felt like Sant was quite disappointed in the way his team had played yesterday. They didn't ball particularly well, I think it's fair to say. They didn't feel great as well, dropped a couple of catches. It was those wides early on that just sort of released any sort of pressure.

of the first two overs, it's easy to forget now that the first two overs did actually go okay for New Zealand. I think there were five dot balls in the first over. Samsung got my Henry away for one six. The second over went for five and then after that it was one way traffic. Well it was rather and 92 without loss at the end of six overs after those eight wides in there as well. So actually seven point two overs once you factor that in. It's the joint most runs ever scored in a T20 World Cup match power play. The stats just keep on rolling, Prakash.

And no side scored more than the 255 in a T-20 World Cup knockout match. But more than that, as if to underline India's dominance, they passed 253 times in the tournament. Yeah, they did. And like I said earlier, doing that in the semifinal and the final, it couldn't have been better scripted. India began shakily. We all know that.

That USA game, which we covered, wasn't exactly their perfect game. But I think somehow that defeat to South Africa, I think, acted as the perfect catalyst. They fielded poorly in that game. They knew they were subpar. And thereafter, for the three games that India played, I think they were a different side. Maybe it was the sort of almost kicking the backside, if you will, a wake-up call, and then they just found a new gear at which to play. And that, I think, allowed them to sort of scale the peak that they were hoping for.

And for once, they peaked at the right time. Yeah, five instances of 250 being scored in the T20 World Cup. Three have been by India in this tournament with their backs really against the wall since that defeat to South Africa. So if you're ever going to perform under pressure, it's a perfect example of it. And why they are, despite losing to South Africa, as we've said, very worthy winners if you can do that under pressure. What was the streets like at 233 a.m. on your way home last night? It was quieter that I imagine it was when you left, but still India shirts everywhere. people everywhere, sort of a bit of some people celebrating,

other people sort of out sweeping the streets, trying to get it back in shape after what I imagine were the celebrations immediately after the final wicket fell. Yeah, it was good. It took me a little while to find a taxi, but let's not comploid. Well, it was a special night, and certainly for India, a really special way to conclude what's been a brilliant month of cricket. I think it has.

The more I might think about this tournament, Prakash. No sports event is ever perfect. There was some Dudd games, but there weren't that many of them. Much, much in the minority, weren't they? I mean, you think about the way this tournament's gone. We touched upon that off area as well. The fact that this was an expanded tournament, you had that many teams, you had more nations represented,

and their ability and their hunger to come out and perform, compete against the best in the game. The individual performance is spurring them on, whether it's a Bennett or a Sikander Raza for Zimbabwe or somebody else for Namibia or the USA. Remember what these Zimbabweens achieved against Australia. All of these things, I think, have added to the charm of the tournament. The fact that the sport that we love may be finally heading towards being a little more global

than being restricted to a smaller group. And I think that can only be good for the game. Both men's and women's cricket, I think, is now expanding. And long may that continue because there will come a day, I hope, when we can talk about cricket, not quite in the same vein as we do about football, that will probably never happen, but to get more and more nations, more diversity,

and more skills and more techniques and more new things. That's what the name of the game is, and cricket's headed that way, in my view. This tournament certainly played its role. Yeah, because this is the second of those 20-team T20 World Cubs with high dozen. The first one was 24 in the Caribbean, and that one was great. I loved working on that tournament,

but there were still some very one-sided games there. We had that spellware, Locky Ferguson, Ball, Four was Four Maidens and that sort of thing, and some very low scores made by the lower-ranked teams. Here it has been very, very competitive all the way throughout. And almost the Super Aid stage, in some ways, was a bit of a letdown after all the entertainment we had at the start. It's helped that we've had two, well, one very good match in the semi-final, the England indie game, which was a brilliant game of cricket. We had a very impressive match, even though one-sided between New Zealand and South Africa.

And then India's run at the back end of that Super 8th sort of lifted the Super 8th a little bit towards the back end. I will always still bang the drum for more knockout matches, get to quarterfinals sooner. If that means scrapping the Super 8s, then so be it. We've seen that the group stage now is a competitive and a part of the tournament in its own right. It used to sort of just be the build-up that got us to the point where, where the so-called bigger teams or the higher ranked teams were then competing against each other. It was almost a vehicle to get to that point.

That's not the case anymore because as we've seen, the lower ranked teams can beat the higher ranked teams. So let's almost champion that early part of the tournament, get into some knockouts and then really put the cat amongst the pigeons from there. You look back at the start of the competition, third game of the tournament, India given a real fright by the USA. England win by just four runs against Nepal. Both those matches we were lucky enough to be at in Mumbai.

There was the double super over here in Ahmedabad between South Africa and Afghanistan. Italy's 10 wicket win for their first T20 World Cup victory against Nepal in their first appearance. Brilliant matches and some compelling stories and narratives of teams coming from seemingly nowhere, but really performing well. Absolutely. And as I said earlier, Henry, I just feel that if there, these nations get more opportunities and there's a lot of talk about how this can be achieved. You're going to play a permanent or a senior rank team or a higher rank team on the way. What's the geography?

Can you stop by and play a game in Namibia or in Zimbabwe when I'm going going to South Africa or play a game against one of the European teams if you're touring England and so on and so forth? I think that needs to become part of the mandate almost, even if it's bilateral, even if it's not necessarily part of the WTC cycle. I think the more established teams need to do their bit. And I actually, I've said this before once, and I don't know anyone will ever take me upon it. But I think there's almost a case to think about whether the bigger T20 franchise leagues

can almost put together a side which is sort of a representative of the rest of the world. There was a time when they used to be sort of the best team in Test match cricket playing the rest of the world test team. Why not in T20 cricket? Why not get a team together which has representation? maybe your continental level or whatever and just make it into something which gives more opportunities and more heroes and more aspiration and more idols for people to follow

in some of the countries where cricket isn't yet quite where they would like it to be. I think the other factor in all of this is so much conversation about weather in the women's tournament that was played in this part of the world in the autumn, Matt, with all those games that were washed out in Sri Lanka, but only two games lost to the world.

weather in this competition out of 55 and you play tournaments anywhere Australia, England, South Africa, you're going to expect a few to fall by the wayside. But that really helped the momentum. Yeah. Momentum is the key thing there, doesn't it? Because we had it. Everyone forgets back in 2019 in England where we had that week where it never stopped raining in Bristol and the southwest when we had games wiped out. But yeah, it's allowed the tournament to get a nice floor to keep going. I do think one little issue I've had and it kind of goes back to that super eight point. It felt like a very long time between England's securing their place in the semi-final and their next match of consequence, which then wasn't until, I think it was nine days

between England beating Pakistan and then their semi-final against India, which almost like just fights against it and leaves you, like, stalls it a little bit, which I guess goes back to that point about quarterfinals without meaning to bang the same drum again. Yeah, there is sort of the perennial issue of context, but compared to the 50 over World Cup, where it feels as though in some parallel universe, that 2023 tournament is still ongoing somewhere with various group matches taking place and so many games where you sort of knew the outcome

before they started, and we sort of knew who the semi-finders were going to be. But, practice, this part of the world, T20 is king. Let's make no mistake with the IPL. And there is just that feeling, perhaps, that T20 cricket does create a closer, more exciting, tournament possibly and I love 50 over cricket and for me the World Cup will always be the 50

over World Cup but this tournament as much as any other has really underlined how good T20 tournaments can be yes I think I think I think fan support is the key I think for a lot of people today the 50 over World Cup many will still believe what you said I agree with you it is the World Cup of white ball cricket for me as well but I think the amount of time that a spectator has to invest in that is becoming harder and harder and And so you're going to find situations where, you know, people find it easy to go for a three and a half, four-hour game. Go out with the family, have a nice evening. If you're in a proper city, you might be able to go out and have dinner before or after, have a drink or two except if you're in Ahmedabad.

But the fact of the matter is that it's a family outing. ODI cricket, 50-over cricket, still means practically the whole day, albeit often the second half of the day. And therefore, I think watching on television and television, television viewership, probably 50 over cricket still very much there. But I think from an engagement with the public, short, sharp, exciting, a lot of rasmutas, many will argue some of it totally unnecessary, but it's there. And people love it because they come out there, they dance, they came, they paint their faces, they do all that kind of stuff.

And I think it's short and sharp. And this world is moving towards more and more instant gratification. And that's what T20 cricket is delivering. What I think we need plenty more of is Ricky Martin, who performed at the fire. The tournament, actually thinking about living to Vida Loca came about four years before T20 cricket did. So there you go. If you heard that enormous horn in the background, by the way, we're not standing on some sort of Alpine Hill with somebody about to break into some yodeling. We're actually right next to a railway station and a train trundling in towards Arminabad.

So that's the good of the tournament, Matt. And we're going to get onto England's report card shortly. But the tournament more broadly, what do you think could have been done better? and what has not quite worked? It's a good question. Aside from the scheduling sort of part of it and the structure of the tournament that I've mentioned, it's hard to forget all the issues

that were around the India-Pakistan game at the start and what that meant and the distraction that that took away from the cricket in the first week of the tournament. It's so frustrating that we... And there are so many reasons for it, and it's such big picture, and it goes far above all of us.

And it's such a tricky topic to, not to debate, but to sort of find the right answer to because there are so many different parts of it. But that issue still hangs over cricket and that is not particularly healthy for the sport. I was encouraged to see, we haven't got the statistics for the final yet, but the stats came out the last couple of days

for the viewership of the semi-finals, particularly the England against India's semi-final, and that was the most streamed. match ever in India, I think, which shows I took from that, that maybe we don't have to be as reliant on that India-Pakistan fixture anymore. Is this proof that if good cricket will, because ultimately there are always, there's money that needs to be made in these tournaments to make the world go around and to make the game work, and India-Pakistan for so long as being such a big part of that, that fixture, I would

hope that those numbers that we got from a brilliant semi-final between, between England and India, a knockout match, I'd like to point that out again, banging the same drum, that proves that maybe we don't have to be as reliant on one fixture. It's still going to be crucial, it always will be. But hopefully that shows that championing cricket

can be the way forward, good cricket. You agree? I completely agree. Look, I think it's time. I've said this before as well, Henry. I think it's time that the ICC got whatever their method is, got together, and simply passed if it's unanimous even better, but a resolution which says, look, tournaments will be awarded to hosts or co-hosts,

whatever that story may be. And once it's announced, there will be a qualification based on whatever criteria. Teams will be asked. Teams have to sign up unequivocally and say, these are the hosts we know, we will go and play where we are told to. If they sign up, that's great. If they don't, you say thank you very much. We'll see you the next edition. get the next in line and go on with it.

No more pandering to A, B, C or D for anything. The only way that this can go forward, in my opinion. The sooner they can do it, the better. I understand the economics. I understand the hype of a particular fixture. But I think it's time we moved on from there. I think Matt makes a very good point about the viewership. I think good cricket, competitive cricket, consistently competitive cricket,

will always draw eyeballs and will give you the revenues and the viewership you want. or the listenership for that matter. And I feel that it's time to move on now from all these previous sort of fixed notions that this has to happen in a particular way. I don't think it needs to. And we need to move on as a cricketing loving organization. The ICC needs to just now get their act together on this

and move on from that. And it is going to happen naturally a little bit now, isn't it? So we've had a lot of tournaments in Asia in the last few years, men's and women's. Good point. The next T20 World Cup on the women's side is in England this summer. Then we've got the next 50 over World Cup in South Africa,

the men's 50 over World Cup in 2027, and then the T20 World Cup after that, the men's one, is in Australia and New Zealand. So the issue of India traveling to Pakistan, Pakistan traveling to India, is not going to come up as much for the next little while, which hopefully will help matters. It's also interesting as well,

because since last night, there's been a lot of talk about how is the world ever going to keep, the cricketing world is going to keep up with India. They're just going to dominate forever now. The cycles like this have happened before. Australia were very dominant for three 50 World Cups in a row. It will be interesting to see whether India can keep this up in those other venues and those other countries that have mentioned.

It has fallen quite nicely, and I wrote a piece last night after the game, after the final, pointing this out that yes, India have been dominant in the last, well, since 2023, since the end of that 23 final, that they lost. But they had a home World Cup in India, 50 over. They had one in the Caribbean on very slow low turning pitches, which really suited their spinners, particularly in that semi-final against England.

They then had a champions trophy in Dubai, where India played all the matches at home, and they're very used to play in Dubai as well. And then they've had another T20th World Cup at home here, as well as Sri Lanka. So yes, India have been brilliant, they've been dominant. Conditions have helped them a little bit, which is just the way it goes. sometimes. It's not a criticism of India at all. They've done brilliantly to do that. So now we'll be interesting and the one thing the rest of the world can sort of cling to and hope that may bring them back into it in those next few tournaments is that now India

are going to have to go and do it in Australia. They're going to have to go and do it in South Africa. South Africa. And then there's an Olympics as well in America in 28, which will say how that goes. I've no idea what the pitchers are going to be like that. So whatever the history of cricket in Los Angeles is going to be like, oh, those pictures are going to turn up, like, who knows. But yeah, it should be interesting, and we'll just see how that all plays out. One thing I'm going to throw in there as a little bit of a negative is I think for overseas fans, tournaments need to be better organized in terms of

when matches are happening and pictures are released. I did a little bit of research yesterday. and leading time ahead of the Women's World Cup in India this last year was four months so tickets were released about two months beforehand this tournament similar leading time it was less than three months for the 2023 edition the night before the semi-final at 6pm

there was a mad rush of tickets that were suddenly released it is nigh on impossible for overseas fans to travel with any consistency confidence in where fixtures are going to be and when they're going to be And I think that is something that tournament organizers need to mandate as you are going to release the fixture six months ahead of time because it is just too difficult. And part of what makes major sporting events so brilliant is when you've got fans coming together and enjoying themselves side by side. And I think it's too easy to think, well, we're just going to fill the stands regardless because people love cricket. You've got to think about what actually is creating the best spectacle and best opportunity for fans from around the world to come and watch.

the matches. Right, we are going to get on to England shortly, but just a little reminder to subscribe to the Test Match Special podcast on BBC Sounds. Just hit that subscribe button and you'll get your notifications, make sure that you'll never miss anything and there is so much to look forward to over the course of the next few weeks and months. Full international summer, a women's T20 World Cup beginning on June the 12th, you'll hear it all across the BBC. And for an England side, the men's side at least, it is a packed schedule. to conclude what has been a packed winter, if you like. It seems to seamlessly go from one to the other,

and we're going to reflect on England's World Cup in just a moment. The TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. So England beaten semi-finalists, but come out of the tournament with a fair degree of credit, all things being relative Matt, considering how they left Australia after the ashes, how they leave India, albeit leaving India a couple of days after they might have done with the travel disruption and everything else.

They had a reasonable tournament as beaten semi-finalists. I think so. We were deciding whether to give it a report card. I'd say probably a B, not much more than that, but a decent showing. I mean, it's one of those tournaments that, one of those performances overall, that you can kind of spin whichever way suits your narrative. I think you can say, well, England never really looked like challenging. They're never really threatened in the semi-final.

although they did get within seven runs, those sixes at the very end from Joffre Archer almost narrowed the margin of victory then was probably truly reflective. I would urge on the side of, or lean towards the side of being, giving more credit for coming through a lot of tight matches. England in the winter in Australia,

whenever it got close, whenever they did have slight opportunities in that series, you go back to Perth on day two, they threw them away. England have reversed that with this whiteball team and they're in tight matches against Nepal, against Scotland, against Italy, against Sri Lanka and against Pakistan and New Zealand. They got the job done under pressure. I think that is a positive thing looking forward.

And we have to remember that a year ago, the 50 over team, yes, they came to the champion's trophy and exited without winning a game. So to have got to a semi-final, it may not be what England fans want, and England need to look to do better. in the coming years, they might be helped by the fact that the next tournament is in South Africa. That should suit them better than these pitches in India and Sri Lanka. So, yeah, I give a slight bit of positivity, but without knowing deep down that it needs to get better, you can't rely on semifinals forever. You've got to be in England as a country, have to be aiming higher than that. I think England did pretty well.

As Matt said, these conditions are not necessarily where they're most comfortable, but they did prepare well this time. That's something that at least in the press sitting here in India, we read about the preparation or the improper preparation for the ashes. There was lots of press about all of that. I think they prepared well, they played well, they came through tight games. And, you know, oftentimes when we look at our own teams, whether I'm looking at India or you're looking at England or someone else at their own team,

we tend to be probably a little bit extra critical. I think oftentimes we forget that there is an opposition that's played as well. And I think in that India, England's semifinal, I think it was the Indian performance, which really needs to be seen as being better than England's, as opposed to saying England played poorly. It's not that England played poorly. I think India just played that much better on the night. And T20 formats, above all, we all know, are so close that it could be one over here or one over there, one drop catch, one missed opportunity, or a brilliant knock by someone for 8 to 10 overs can change the game.

So I don't think you want to be too harsh on England. I do think that the good thing to see was England were not as predictable as we've known them to be in the past. They were flexible. Brooke coming up to number three probably should have happened earlier maybe. That certainly changed the tempo. When they played against New Zealand, I thought young Ryan, Emma being thrown into that game and hitting those winning runs, again, showed that there's confidence,

there's belief in even the blocs who are sitting on the bench and coming in. So there are a lot of positives. I think oftentimes we as people who obviously understand the game a little bit, but are sitting in a very different environment and looking out, tend to be critical more of our own teams than we are of the others.

And I therefore think I'd go a little bit above where Matt ended up. Matt said B, I'd go B plus. I think you mentioned. there the sort of decisions a few decisions that have made I think that's where we are expecting as you've probably read and heard in the last few days that Brendan McCollum and Rob Key will keep their jobs after this nothing's decided yet the suggestion is that have done enough I think there are a few points that show that they have made

good decisions in this tournament you take that back I say in this tournament you actually take it back to the start of the cycle we were both there Henry I remember at Headingley last year and Harry Brooks first press conference and he spoke about bringing back Leo Dorson straight away he said I'm gonna be captain we've got a World Cup in India and Sri Lanka next year and bringing back me and Dawson that definitely worked England the start of 2025 they brought in Tom Banton and they picked him to attack spin in the middle overs he had one really good evenings and a few

good contributions as well that work England have picked Will Jax as a finisher which on the face it is quite a for a guy it's open for exactly his whole career he does it in the 100 he does it for Surrey he does it in the IP mostly, he's someone at the top of the order and they saw something there that they thought he can be our finisher, a problem in England, a problem position for England for a little while now and that's absolutely worked so much so that I think he's probably banked that position for the 50 over team as well. So I think you have to give some credit there, plenty of credit there to Brooke and to McCullum. We've criticized them

through the winter quite rightly you have to give them a little bit of of credit for when it has come up, when they've done things that have come off. Jacob Bethel as well, 100 in a World Cup semi-final, 22 years old. He's become part of that small club of players that have scored 300 in three formats for England or indeed full stop. So that's a massive positive for England. Yeah, and that is, we shouldn't forget, despite everything I've said there, how important that innings is in setting the narrative,

because had England conceded 254 against India and then being rolled for a hundred and 100, we'd be saying very different things at this point. I'd counteract that by saying the fact that a player was able to do that and play with that freedom and that mentality tells a story. Similarly, when Harry Brooks scored his 100, and there was that real wobble for England, but he went out there as captain and didn't think, oh, I've got to protect my wiki. He said, I'm going to win the game. And it just told a bit of a story about the attitude of the team.

And I actually think that, you can say, oh, well, he might have got out. But I actually think that's quite an English way to look at it. Why not think, well, he didn't. He went for it and he's actually shown the way. And I think that's a real positive. I agree. And I think that's what I mean. I mean, what do you choose to focus on?

The players, when they talk, I'm sure they analyze inside their own huddles and groups, everything that went well and what didn't go well. From the outside, often I think we tend to focus a little bit more on what didn't go well. We've got to give credit where it's due like Matt said, whether it's in strategic planning, whether it's in execution, whether it's in decisions that have been taken in the heat of battle on the spur of the movement, on the park. All of these things matter.

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. And in T-20 cricket, I think the only way to play is to win at all costs. Because whether it's a seven-run loss or a 70-run loss, yes, you can talk about the headlines and what have you, but the result is the same. So you might as well go down and lose by seven runs rather than try and sort of protect something that you want to protect or an individual player or whatever.

T20 is to me a real team game. And I think England, yes, it was befelled that night. It could have been someone else in another situation. Coming as close as they did, I think there should be absolutely, well, not absolutely, but very little criticism. I think England have come through well. And there were one game away. Let's be honest from winning the tournament.

So I think B plus for sure, if not more. Yeah, Will Jack's four player of the match awards as well is bowling as much as anything. and no player in the history of the tournament's collected more across a single edition. So real credit for him. Also, I think you can possibly put a bit of an asterisk around the figures of some of the scene bowlers just because of the fact that we've seen such big scores in the tournament. And very few scene bowlers have really profited by Jasprey Bumra, who's been, as ever, phenomenal. Prakash, you spoke there with nuance and a degree of balance.

And in this modern day and age, particularly on social media, that's not allowed. You have to say England, we're absolutely rubbish, are absolutely brilliant. So I'm afraid you're going to have to try again. But this is the point. We have to look at things with a little bit of balance. And I think your external view is a really interesting one, because at the end of the men's ashes, there was such a sense of negativity. And it was all, well, this was terrible. This went wrong.

And it was horrible and whatever else. But sometimes, as you say, you get to the end of a tournament, think, well, actually, yeah, they did all right there. And I think England will feel didn't win, didn't necessarily quite perform when they really needed to in that crunch moment, but they did a decent enough job and there's some positives going forward. Is that fair match just to conclude? Yeah, I think so. And we can admit that things did go badly wrong in the ashes. And that is what makes, in some ways, the way that they were able to reset the narrative all the more impressive.

of it. There was so much baggage coming into this tournament. We haven't even mentioned the things that Harry Brooke came into this tournament with the questions he was asked and the lead up in that series in Sri Lanka around the incident in Wellington. We haven't mentioned that at all yet and that's because of how they've been able to turn it around since then and why I think basically I think this feels different to 2024 when England lost to a semi-final against India and went out. This feels like a better showing than that one even though ultimately it is exactly the same. Yeah, I think that's a very fair assessment.

Right then, to wrap things up, let's go for our quick fire round, gents. Answer from each of you on the following. Best innings of the tournament, Pradesh. Finale and semi-final Calcutta. Yeah, 100 to beat South Africa. I will prefer. I prefer innings with a bit more nuance,

a bit more jeopardy when the team sort of the situation is on the line. So then I go either Sanju Samson, or in the matches against West Indies in particular when he led that chairs, which was effectively a quarter-final, or Harry Brooke against Pakistan. I'll just give it to Samson.

Yeah, I'm gonna go Harry Brooke for that innings because it showed a direction of leadership that I thought was very encouraging. What are your wow moment at the tournament, Prakash? Australia going out. Without question for me, that was the big one because, look, Australia, irrespective, all the problems they had coming in,

to the tournament, the injuries to their leading bowlers and all of that, you know that they are such a side, such a country, such a sporting nation, they always find a way. And for them not to make it through and get out of the tournament or we be dumped out of the tournament at the Sri Lanka leg itself, for me, was the wow movement in a negative sort of way. The wow movement for me positively was the performance of countries like particularly of Zimbabwe who I'd off my hat to them. the remarkable resurgence and I hope that continues for a while. Can I have one shot? Is that allowed? Harry Brooks shot against New Zealand into the big screen. Am I allowed that? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a lovely shout. I'm going to go Andrea Bacheli making an appearance in the tournament. When Italy won that game against Nepal by 10 wickets, hearing that Andrea Bacheli had sent a message to the squad.

A crossover I hadn't anticipated coming into the competition. What about the flattest, Phaqas? Good question. It's a tough one. You know, what is a flat pitch? Is it a pitch where batters play exceptionally well against bowlers who are known to perform extremely well? Or is it a pitch where bowlers have no hope? Because if that's the case, then by and large all bowlers, whether you're great or ordinary,

should go for runs. That's not been the case. I mean, if you look at the two matches that India played where a lot of people are saying they were were specially rolled out, as is inevitable, of course, in the world today, in Mumbai and in Amdabad, guys like Bumra, Nisham, his first three-overs were brilliant. So it's not that there is a flat pitch and bowlers can't do anything. Yes, is it stacked in favor of bowlers or batsmen? It's a debate we can have.

T20 cricket is meant to be a bat-dominated game. That is why we talk about and enjoy it when the ball is doing a lot more. And in the early part of the tournament, both in Sri Lanka and India, we saw the pitches offering a little more. I think as the pitches got older, as the sun baked down, particularly here in India, and they had to make sure that they weren't going to crumble. There was obviously a lot more rolling. So bat-friendly, bat-friendly pitches did turn up towards the latter part of the tournament

in the knockout stages. And if I still had to pick one, I would say that Mumbai was probably flatter than even Amdabund. Yeah, I maybe go slightly the other way. I'm not sure I saw a ball do anything of north, particularly in the first things from New Zealand in the final. Probably give it just to that one. Yeah, I think Mumbai, for me, having seen the heavy roller driving up and down, I think the heavy roller did put about 3,000 miles on its clock the day before the semi-final in Mumbai.

Up and down it went, it looked absolutely knackered by the end of that. Shorter boundaries on Mumbai as well. That's also true, yeah. No, fair point, Matt. Okay, what about the worst drop, Bracash? This will surprise you. Again, I'm not going by consequence of the drop or the impact the drop had. If that was the criteria, I think Harry Brooke would be right up there.

But I think for me, in that condition, it was actually Hardik Pandya's drop at backward point yesterday, which I thought was an absolute shocker for someone of his ability. So they won earlier in the innings that Shivamdube drop in the day. very first over. It was kind of missed on the TV pictures. How Arsdeep Singh, who was the baller, when the ball was smashed up in the air, it was Finn Allen, wasn't it? Skyed a catch, he was on zero and it didn't really matter in the end. To out to long off. Ashdip Singh was almost at fine legs celebrating before the ball had even dropped. Finn Allen was halfway off the field. Yeah. He'd gone, Alan had gone one way,

Arsdeeve had gone the other way, both just expecting the catch to be taken. Somehow Dubeye dropped it, but I'm not sure that one from Dubay was as bad as Osum and Tarix in the game between England and Pakistan when he dropped Jacob Beth, but that one was a real sitter. I'll go with that one. I just want to make one other observation. I don't know how right or wrong this is, but depending on the time of day,

I'm just casting my mind back to that game at the Eden Gardens. And if you look at it from a ground where matches, catches have been dropped, I think the Eden Gardens in this tournament will probably be right up there. Now, whether it is because of the way the ball comes out of the crowd, whether that's actually where again they have that similar ring of fire kind of floodlights, whether that's a cause. But there are certain grounds where sometimes catches go down a lot more than some others.

And that may be something to factor into this. But yeah, nobody drops a catch deliberately. And there will always be that story of catchers winning matches. We talk about the greatest catches of the tournament. We've seen some remarkable ones. So, yeah, that's just the way the game is. And that's what it's all about, right? That's why it resembles life.

Some things work, some things don't. I'm going to go, Harry Brooke in the semi-final. Early on, Sanju-Sampson 15, goes on to score 89. Potentially, who knows, would England have got through? Maybe not. Someone else might have got the runs, but I almost put it a little bit like the length of Paul Gasco and stud when the ball goes across a six-yard box, an extra time of Euro 96, and England almost score a golden goal.

It's not quite like that, I know, but it was, yeah, it's one of those moments you think, well, what might have been? How might history have gone differently? So I'm going to chuck that one in there and just funny, best player in the tournament. That's a tough one, really is. Because, you know, recency bias will come in. And with that caveat,

honestly, I do think there have been some amazing individual performances, but I am going to go out of script a little bit and actually say the Indian cricket team. And the reason I say that is it's been years coming. But this time, I felt that the Indian Indian team played as a team much, much more than an individual. There's seven or eight key performances through the latter part of the tournament in particular

and right up front as well. And that's why I think for me the best player of the tournament is the Indian cricket team. But if I had to again gun to the head pick one, recency bias very much part of it, Sanju Samson. It's hard, isn't actually, to pick one player from this tournament? There's been a lot of contributions. This is almost a strength of the Indian team. Gaut and Gambia spoke about it last night.

The importance of the collective. They don't have necessarily this India team, the superstars of previous India teams, when you could reel them off when you had Satchin and Dravid and Gangulyan in Ghanguyen teams, or you had Koli and Royt and Jadija in another team. Jasper Bummer is obviously a superstar outside of that. I'm not sure there are any real megastars in the same league

that Rohit and Koli and Dorni, for example. Samson definitely for the way he has performed under pressure will be up there it's hard to ever argue against Bumra being the best player any competition he plays in doesn't feel like any of his performances have been particularly match-defining although that all re-bowled in the semi-final against England when he only conceded singles right at the death when England had got their momentum going and then they fell away after that and following over when they were left for too much to do was crucial Bethel may have got them over the last

line without that. So maybe I go with Bumra, but I wouldn't really argue with Samson. If someone said to me that it was Will Jacks, then I probably wouldn't argue with that too greatly either. I think there are quite a few players up there near the top who perform pretty well throughout. In terms of the stats and the raw numbers, well, Sabzada Farhan for Pakistan's 383 runs across six innings, the most anyone's ever scored in a single edition of the tournament. But Sanju Sampson's five innings yielded 321 runs. So some amazing batting contributions with the ball. Bumra and Chakravarti, both 14 wickets apiece.

I'm going to chuck in the USA Shadri van Schalkwijk as well, who picked up 13 wickets across just 14.5 overs, which is pretty good going from the American fast bowler. For me, I can't look beyond Bumra. I just think that there is nobody like him in the world game. there's never been a bowler quite as effective or dominant consistently, who almost makes a T20 match 20-place 16 over as it feels like at times he's just that good. And for me, any team in the world would be so greatly improved by his presence that he's irreplaceable. And for me, you can't look beyond him as the most significant and brilliant player in the world game,

particularly in white ball cricket. So I'm going to go Jasprey, Bumra. Right then, gents, here in our little eerie, sitting here in the warmth of arm. It's around about 39 degrees. I'm glad that we're in the shade as well. Prachesh is wearing his very natty T20 World Cup baseball cap back to front. He only does that for celebratory occasions. He told me he was too old to do that the other day. I tried to tell him to do it.

He said, no, I'm too old for him. He's listened to us, Henry. He broke him down by the end. It's worrying if he's taking fashion advice from you and me, Matt, obviously. Also, let me just mention Matt Henry, not the New Zealand bowler, but when we checked into this hotel, the card that they had partially filled out for you already did have the fast bowler's birth date on it, which... Nationality, New Zealand. You know, if we'd taken that, we might have got a sweet between the boarders. I did lost.

I can confirm there was no sweet. Yeah, well, there you go. Right. Thank you, Prakash and Matt. And that's it for this episode of the TMS podcast. Make sure that you'll subscribe so you never miss an episode. push notifications turned on your phone settings too so you'll get notified notified as soon as an episode drops but that is it for our time out here in India and Sri Lanka not too long to wait until the next major ICC event as well 12th of June

that gets underway in England with the women's T20 World Cup will India's whiteball dominance continue across the men's and women's game we will wait and see we've got a huge summer as well coming up with that White Ball and Red Bull series for England's men and women, of course, for 100 new look, 100 to come. And we're less than a month away from the start of the county championship. Oh, it's all so close and so exciting.

It's been a long winter, but my goodness, it's been good fun. Thank you so much for listening and for joining us on the Test Match Special podcast. We'll speak to you next time. A new era of Formula One is about to dawn. I think the biggest step, the sport has ever seen. There are new rules.

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