Mumbai: The scenes on Mumbai streets on Thursday evening were quite epic.
Thousands had turned up at the airport to greet their heroes as they flew over from Delhi around 5.30 pm and made their way out of the Mumbai airport an hour later.
Countless fans lined up on the roads as the bus carrying Rohit Sharma & Co. took them to the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in an hour and a half. From the NCPA, they were transferred to the specially designed open-top bus.
The ‘real’ victory parade began a few minutes before 8 pm as the bus navigated wildly cheering fans down Marine Drive and Nariman Point, towards the Wankhede Stadium.
As skipper Rohit Sharma had said two days earlier, they wanted to share T20 World Cup triumph with cricket-crazy fans and invited them to the victory parade.
And boy did they respond!
As their heroes appeared atop the bus one by one, the fans went wild.
#WATCH | Team India begins its victory parade in Mumbai and passes through a sea of Cricket fans who have gathered to see the T20 World Cup champions. #T20WorldCup2024 pic.twitter.com/hDSY9rK62S
— ANI (@ANI) July 4, 2024
Jasprit Bumrah waved to the fans, Hardik Pandya shook the Cup as if it was his personal property.
The trolling and jeering Pandya received during the IPL a few months back was a thing of the past as fans screamed ‘Hardik, Hardik’.
Virat Kohli soaked in the atmosphere, waving animatedly at fans from time to time, clicking pictures, recording videos.
The likes of Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Dube, Yashasvi Dube gestured animatedly towards the crowd as the bus slowly made its way through Marine Drive.
#WATCH | Team India greets fans as it conducts their victory parade in Mumbai.#T20WorldCup2024 pic.twitter.com/zG4rWVdJHS
— ANI (@ANI) July 4, 2024
Even Rahul Dravid was not to be left behind. A man of few words and almost no emotions, the head coach has been a different person from the moment India sealed the World Cup on Saturday.
Atop the bus, he went to one side with the trophy and swayed it towards the crowd, telling them repeatedly, “It’s for you, It’s for you”.
Rohit and Kohli held the Cup together and conveyed similar sentiments to their ever-loving fans.
A drive from Marine Drive to Wankhede Stadium, which normally takes 5 minutes, was never ending as the players went all out to please the crowd.
Around 30,000 were waiting at the stadium, but three or four times that number weren’t lucky and had to catch a glimpse of their heroes from roadside.
