Rohit, Harmanpreet's advice for India's T20 World Cup quest
As Suryakumar Yadav prepares to lead India into a home T20 World Cup, the veteran leaders share the know-how of winning at the big stage.
In three months, Suryakumar Yadav will face a test like never before - defending India’s ICC Men's T20 World Cup title on home soil.
While the 35-year-old has had an impressive run as India’s skipper in the shortest format with a recent Asia Cup triumph and a series win Down Under, he now prepares for a daunting task.
While speaking at a special event in Mumbai that marked the launch of the T20 World Cup 2026 fixtures, tournament ambassador Rohit Sharma and newly crowned ICC Women's Cricket World Cup-winning captain Harmanpreet Kaur offered words of wisdom for the India skipper.
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Rohit, who led the team to their title win in 2024, shared the gruelling task it is to win an ICC event.
“It’s a huge task to win an ICC trophy, I’ve seen that personally as well," he said.
"With all these years, I’ve spent 18 years playing international cricket and been fortunate enough to win one-two recently and one-two at the beginning of my career, but in the middle, it was a huge drought where we couldn’t win an ICC trophy.”
Rohit was a part of India’s T20 World Cup-winning side of 2007 and the Champions Trophy-winning side of 2013. After he skippered India to their first ICC tournament win in 11 years at the 2024 T20 World Cup, Rohit also led the team to the Champions Trophy 2025 triumph.
Speaking on his experience with the side from last year’s T20 World Cup triumph, Rohit added, “I was literally there a year back (at T20 World Cup 2024), so I understand this pressure from the outside.”
India women's skipper Harmanpreet Kaur, also weighed in with her experience of having to wait for India's maiden Cricket World Cup triumph.
“That wait, imagine how many years we waited (to win the first Women’s World Cup for India) and how frustrated we were. Finally, after achieving it, it means a lot, and even now I want to stay in that moment.”
Kaur had led India to a memorable victory on home soil earlier this month in Navi Mumbai.
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Rohit furthermore added that he backed the current Indian T20I side to put in the work at the big stage.
“I would tell them to shut the outside noise, because that is something that we’ve created amongst ourselves, where when there’s a job at hand, how to focus on that, and I’m sure some of these guys are pretty good at that.”
India will face the USA in their opening game in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026, in Mumbai on February 7.