PM Modi quizzes Rohit Sharma lightheartedly about taste of Barbados soil

Indian team reached Delhi early in the morning on July 4, after becoming T20 World Cup 2024 champions in Barbados on June 29. The team straightaway checked into ITC Maurya Hotel and later visited Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence around 11 am. As the team met the PM, Rohit Sharma was asked by the PM about the taste of Barbados’ mud.

For the unversed, after winning the final at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, Rohit walked up to the pitch took a speck of soil, and put it in his mouth. Social media was abuzz comparing the antic to that of tennis star, Novak Djokovic’s grass-eating celebration. But as for Rohit, he clarified that it was just out of pure emotion for the place where the coveted trophy was achieved. He also added that it was instinctive and not preplanned.

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"You know... I was feeling the moment when I went to the pitch because that pitch gave us this. We played on that particular pitch and we won the game, that particular ground as well. I will remember that ground forever in my life and that pitch as well. So I wanted to have a piece of it with me. So yeah, those moments are very, very special. And the place where all our dreams came true, I wanted something of it. That was the feeling behind it," Rohit said in a video posted by BCCI.

Rohit breaks India’s ICC trophy jinx

Rohit became only the second Indian captain after MS Dhoni to lay his hands on the T20 World Cup trophy. Dhoni achieved the feat in 2007 and the India opener managed to recreate history after a hiatus of 17 years. This was also the first World Cup trophy of the Indian team after a gap of 13 years and the first ICC trophy since 2013. The India captain, along with Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja, announced retirement from the T20Is after the win.