With The Team Virat Had, They Could Have Won Three Or Four Trophies : Harbhajan Singh

With less than 50 days to go until the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup India & Sri Lanka 2026, JioStar has dropped Rise Of Champions, a series that tracks the Indian men’s team’s journey from the glorious years of 2007, 2011, and 2013 to a decade of heartbreak. The first episode, Illusion, encapsulates the beginning of the decade that saw the Indian men’s team struggle at ICC events.

In the first episode of Rise Of Champions, now live on JioHotstar, India’s 2024 T20 World Cup-winning skipper Rohit Sharma said: "I was in my first year with the team during the 2007 T20 World Cup and I was just 20. After winning that trophy, we felt we would continue our winning ways."

Former India player Sanjay Manjrekar explained MS Dhoni’s impact on India’s golden era in the first episode of Rise Of Champions: "Dhoni’s greatness was that on the big stage, he just held his nerve better than the opposing captain."

Following India’s 2013 Champions Trophy win, in the first episode of Rise Of Champions, former England skipper Eoin Morgan noted that trophies define domination: "I think any team that dominates an era is always judged by the trophies they win and the level of success they've had."

Australia’s World Cup-winning skipper Aaron Finch discussed the expectations placed on India in the first episode of Rise Of Champions: "When you're an Indian team with so much experience and skill, people look at the team sheet and assume they have to win. It's a remarkable team, but that reputation carries its own weight as well."

After India was beaten in the semifinals of the 2016 T20 World Cup by the West Indies, in the first episode of Rise Of Champions Danny Morrison remarked: "That’s what I love about ICC World Cup events. The underdog can suddenly rise and cause an upset. We've seen that."

In the first episode of Rise Of Champions, former Australia player Tom Moody expressed surprise that India’s talent pool didn't lead to more silverware: "It's hard to get your head around, particularly given the resources India built up. It was like a groundswell starting from the early 2000s; the side was growing stronger and the depth of options became nearly overwhelming."

After another disappointment at the 2021 T20 World Cup, Harbhajan Singh suggested that Virat Kohli should have secured more trophies in the first episode of Rise Of Champions: "The kind of team Virat had, they could have won three or four trophies. Nahi jeete kuch toh karan honge but I still feel unke paas achhi team thi (If they didn’t win, there must be a reason, but I still feel he had a solid team)."

Sanjay Manjrekar also voiced concerns regarding team selection during the Kohli-Shastri era: "Team selection under Ravi and Virat was always my biggest concern." However, AB de Villiers offered a different perspective in the first episode of Rise Of Champions:

"Frankly, it irritates me that people always judge a captain solely on whether they've won a World Cup. Saying 'that guy is useless because he hasn’t won a World Cup' is unfair."

Summing up the era, Tom Moody concluded:

"The Virat Kohli era was an era of high expectation, but ultimately, disappointment."