India’s T20 World Cup-winning team arrived in New Delhi early Thursday morning to a rousing welcome at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Fans, holding placards congratulating their favourite players, waving the Tricolour and shouting ‘India, India’, braved a steady drizzle and lined up outside the airport to welcome the victorious players.
The chartered Air India flight, with a special call sign — AIC24WC – Air India Champions 24 World Cup — left Barbados’s Grantley Adams International Airport on Wednesday after being stranded there for three days due to the category 4 Hurricane Beryl.
Aboard the aircraft were the team, its support staff, the players’ families, officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and travelling Indian media.
The team will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi later at 11 am at his residence before flying to Mumbai, where a road show and felicitation function is scheduled at the Wankhede stadium.
The team will arrive in Mumbai at 4:00pm. The players are expected to reach the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), from where a two-hour open bus parade will begin at 5pm.
The open bus parade on Marine Drive will culminate at the Wankhede stadium.
The felicitation function is scheduled at 7:30pm, after which the players will leave for the team hotel.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and his men won the 2024 T20 World Cup after pulling off a thrilling seven-run victory over South Africa in the final at Kensington Oval, in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Saturday, June 29.
