5 min readFeb 5, 2026 08:16 PM IST
The sentiment to get comfortable in the skin of domineering champions. Suryakumar Yadav’s T20 Team India has been urged not just to defend the crown Rohit, Virat, Hardik and Bumrah won at Barbados, but to now effectively keep the Cup home – given India is hosting.
Speaking to The Indian Express about the promo campaign run by JioHotstar for the last one month, World Cup player of the final Deepti Sharma said, “Ek Cup aa gayaa hai, doosra jaane nahi denge. I’m very sure the team will work very hard for the Cup, and bring it home,” she said.
The campaign might not have captured the imagination as much as the one before the Women’s World Cup where an ordinary fan of the men’s game is slowly persuaded to cheer as loudly for the women, but this one conceptualised by Atul Kattukaran and the creative team at the broadcasters, harps on not letting go of the bragging rights of being world champions. ‘
Indian women mounted a sturdy home charge at the title last November at DY Patil and now the men are being urged to hold strong as another World Cup in a different format is played at home. Loosely riffing off the Dangal dialogue of if chhoriya can win, then so can chhore – again, and at home – the campaign has a bunch of cliches, but fact remains that after 2011, India hasn’t lifted a trophy at home, unforgettably losing the 50 over final in glum month of November of 2023. Nevertheless, winning at home remains a challenge that no (male) captain since Dhoni has managed.
A home Cup brings the attendant crowd pressure, clamour for passes, insane scrutiny that Dravid-Sharma almost handled until they didn’t in final, the VIP noise and chaos that players don’t need to tolerate when abroad. On the other hand, the women’s team showed how Indian fans can show them the power of belief and pure, ordinary fan’s love, that DY Patil showed against Australia and South Africa. If India reach this T20 final, they will have to play in Ahmedabad.
With Harmanpreet’s team showing how it’s done, the onus, as per the campaign is on the men.
Jemimah Rodrigues told the Express, “It’s a great feeling. I know how much boys have cheered for us. And now it’s our turn. Just know we are going to back you no matter what. Just Go out there, have fun and bring it home. It’s a lovely slogan. No better feeling than to have another World Cup back when we are playing at our home ground. So it’s gonna be great. Best thing about playing at home is you know there are more than 1.6 billion people backing and cheering for you. When India walks in, it’s not just the 11. It’s everyone together coming as one and going against whatever opponent we are playing. It’s just going to pump everyone to go out and give their best.”
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Another segment of the campaign has Rohit in a slightly muddled idea where he’s scornful of history lessons (‘yeh history ki class nahi, cricket hai’), but also urges SKY’s India to repeat history. But that hotch-potch messaging is down to the creatives, while Rohit is quite simply encouraging what’s considered a strong team to keep winning.
Shafali Verma told the Express, “From the start the men used to cheer for us. We are very excited to send message to them for the World Cup. It’s not about a challenge. It’s a confidence thing for men. They are very confident that if women have won, we can win it too. It’s a different energy playing World Cup at home. You will feel different. I’m very excited to see those World Cup games. I’m sure you will give your life to win.”
Even as the ‘Champions Back Champions in a Script Reversal for JioStar’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026’ picks tempo and the World Cup begins, the biggest message that the women can offer men is how to keep out the noise, and ignore carpers.
