On March 23, 2003 at the Wanderers, the mighty Australian side walloped India to make it two ODI World Cups in a row. At the time of that fixture, India's current top-three of Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan were little kids who were understandably yet to grapple with the exact emotion of losing a World Cup final.
23 years later, the trio combined to replicate that Aussie onslaught in Indian colours against a hapless New Zealand bowling attack at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday (March 8). Before we come to their batting effort, the one common factor happened at the toss itself. Like Sourav Ganguly in 2003, Mitchell Santner in 2026 also made a blunder by opting to bowl at the toss. The rest, is, history!
For a team that had hit a roadblock of claiming ICC titles between 2014 and 2023, the 2026 T20 World Cup final will go down as their 'easiest title win', purely from a final's perspective. Of course, no World Cup title is actually easy and this term is only being used in a relative sense. After being put into bat, India's top-three produced a demolition act for the ages.
Heading into the final, Samson was the most in-form batter of the three, having smashed 97* in a virtual quarterfinal and then hammered 89 in the semifinal. The Kerala batter just continued his merry ways by marrying swagger, style and power in a seamless fashion at one end, and the stage was set for Abhishek who was the out-of-form lad out there. How time changes in just a month!! That's T20 cricket for you.
For someone who had dominated the format in the last 18 months to become the no.1 ranked batter in T20Is, Abhishek couldn't buy a run through the T20 World Cup, so much so that there were even talks of him possibly being sidelined for the final. Unthinkable a month ago, right? However, the team management backed him, as they should, and Abhishek put on a show in the final, even if not fully in control.
Then there is Ishan Kishan! Till the T20 World Cup squad announcement, he was nowhere in the picture as far as India's T20 plans go! However, he was quietly piling on the runs in domestic white-ball cricket and a historic Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy turned things around big time. He topped the run charts and also led Jharkhand to their first-ever SMAT title.
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Kishan wasn't exactly out of form in the T20 World Cup and got many starts without really going big, apart from the match against Pakistan. Like Samson and Abhishek, Kishan also chose the big moment to stamp his authority with a blistering fifty. The trio's efforts meant that a score of 200, generally considered competitive for big games, was reached with a good part of five overs left! CARNAGE!
Samson arguably struggled the most of the three, given that he had done nothing wrong to be removed as opener in mid-2025, only to return back to the role after the Shubman Gill experiment was shelved. Then, perhaps due to the sudden pressure, Samson wilted in the bilaterals against South Africa and New Zealand. Suddenly, it seemed like he would feature in another T20 World Cup without playing a single game!
However, fever to Abhishek meant a game for Samson and then, the loss to South Africa meant that India had to do something about their left-handed top order. Back came Samson and again, the rest, is, history! Samson, Abhishek and Kishan were so ruthless in the final, much like Adam Gilchrist, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn were in that final against India in 2003.
Different formats and different narratives, but India's win in the 2026 T20 World Cup final was as dominant as Australia's in the 2003 ODI World Cup final. The kind of win that gives a statement to the all other teams!