Abhishek Sharma: ‘It wasn’t an easy tournament for me’
“I wanted to share this before as well but today is the best day to talk about this thing: The coach and the captain had faith in me. Even I was doubting myself because it wasn’t an easy tournament for me. I hadn’t experienced [anything like] this before – playing my first World Cup. But everyone was so like, you are going to win one big game, one big game. So I was doing my process but it was not that easy as a young player, just one or two years in the Indian team and then going through this phase. But I just love this team for the way they treated me in those days; I have never felt this way before.
“It was not that easy for me. Through the whole year, I was doing so well for the team but at the big occasion, I wasn’t able to do well. But the faith and confidence the players and the coaches showed in me… I got emotional in between as well. I wanted to do really well in all the games but I couldn’t. Then I was like, I wanted to talk to the coach or the captain. They always said one thing: ‘You are going to win us the big games.” I just wanted to wait for that day. You cannot ask for a better day than this.”
Varun Chakravarthy: Abhishek and I would keep changing seats
“It feels amazing. Two back-to-back ICC trophies, it feels surreal. I am very happy for Abhishek that he was able to score today. He used to sit next to me… we would keep changing seats. We were like what’s happening, nothing is working out for us. And finally, we have won the cup, so everything is zeroed out.”
Shivam Dube: ‘My role was to hit big sixes’
“My role was to hit some big sixes. Sometimes some other batters do it. I always back myself to hit sixes whenever I get opportunities. [On his bowling] I have developed it a lot but haven’t bowled a lot, will do better next time. It’s one of the biggest stages today, the crowd was amazing. This tournament belongs to the supporters of the Indian team. All credit to all the Indian team supporters.”
Tilak Varma: ‘Next couple of days will be a big party’
“We are up for whatever the team needs. We have already practised batting in whatever position. [Catching] Whenever the team needed, the team stood up. Axar took some great catches against England. Today also I won’t say we were great, but me, Ishan took some catches. The next couple of days will be a big party with the boys. We will take a short break and be back for the IPL
Arshdeep Singh: We put in efforts; result is icing on the cake
I just ran away now to say sorry to [Daryl] Mitchell. My throw reverse-swung to hit him! [On his emotions] Don’t know, now it feels good because we have won. Will sink in in a couple of days. We put in the efforts, and the result is icing on the cake. The bowlers’ role is that if batters score 250, we need to restrict the opposition under that. If we are bowling first, the aim is to keep them to as low a total as possible.
