Rohit Sharma-led Team India has landed in Mumbai ahead of the much-anticipated open-top bus victory parade from Marine Drive to Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, July 4.
After being stranded in Barbados due to Hurricane Beryl 3 days following T20 World Cup 2024 triumph, the Men in Blue finally returned home with a trophy as they landed in Delhi and headed towards ITC Maurya Hotel, where the players took some rest before heading to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his official residence, 7 Lok Jan Marg.
After an hour-long meeting-cum-breakfast with PM Modi, the India squad left for Delhi Airport to take a flight to Mumbai for the much-awaited victory parade on the streets of Maharashtra's financial capital. The players boarded Vistara Flight From Delhi with a call sign 'UK 1845' and Airline service took to X handle (formerly Twitter) to announce the same.
'UK1845' was a special Vistara flight for Team India to travel from Delhi to Mumbai for an open-top bus victory parade. However, the Vistara renamed the flight to pay tribute to India's legendary batting legendary batting duo Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The numbers 18 and 45 are dedicated to Kohli and Rohit as they wear same jersey numbers respectively in International cricket.
This special Vistara flight honors Kohli and Rohit's contributions in T20I as the duo announced their retirement from the shortest format of the game for Team India following the Men in Blue's T20 World Cup 2024 triumph.
Meanwhile, India finally brought home the covered T20 World Cup trophy after 17 long years, with their previous victory coming in the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2007 under the leadership of MS Dhoni, defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in the title clash at Johannesburg.
With the T20 World Cup 2024 triumph, Team India finally put an end to 11-year ICC and 13-year World Cup titles drought. The last time, the Men in Blue won an ICC title was the 2013 Champions Trophy under the captaincy of MS Dhoni. Interestingly, India ended their ICC title drought in their first T20 World Cup final appearance in 10 years and defeated South Africa by 7 runs.
Apart from winning the T20 World Cup for the second time, Team India achieved a unique feat of becoming the first team to win the coveted trophy without a losing a game. South Africa were on an eight-match winning streak but their unbeaten run came to an end with the defeat against India in the final.
