Did you wake up again with that familiar, inexplicable twitch?
It’s the day of the grand cricket final. Maybe you had a nightmare. The nightmare probably has specific coordinates: November 19, 2023 v Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
If so, you are not alone.
What happened that evening caused unimaginable pain to a nation of billions. Juggernaut stopped in his tracks. A team that looked invincible throughout the tournament suddenly crashed to the ground.
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But it’s not just cricket fans who are feeling the nerves this Sunday.
If you’re a badminton fan, sleeping might have been even more difficult. Your wait for the All England Open crown has been longer, much longer. Pullela Gopichand was the last shuttler from India to win the prestigious title in 2001. 25 years is a lifetime in the age of shrinking attention spans.
Two cities. Two finals. Two stubborn goons.
The T20 World Cup Final between India and New Zealand will start at 7:00 PM IST. Meanwhile, Lakshya Sena’s All England Open final won’t start until 5:30 PM IST.
Star Sports will provide the live telecast while JioHotstar will stream both the matches live in India.
The first one is T20 World Cup Final between India and New Zealand. India have never beaten the BlackCaps in a T20 World Cup match. Yes, never.
Still, New Zealand may not even be the biggest concern for many Indian fans. On Sunday, they will be hoping that the Ahmedabad Stadium will finally become a friend rather than a tormentor.
India are 0–2 in World Cup matches at the world’s biggest cricket venue. Defeat to Australia in the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup remains a scar in the memory of Indian cricket. Only last month, India were comprehensively outplayed by South Africa in a Super 8 match at the same venue.
Almost 7,000 kilometers away, the next final carries the weight of history.
on England Open full-length final in Birmingham, Lakshya Sen faces Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-yi — a rival they have yet to beat in four meetings.
But Lakshya also faces a tournament that has long resisted India’s rise.
Throughout India’s transformation into a badminton powerhouse, All England has remained strangely elusive. Since the inception of Saina Nehwal, Indian players have collected Olympic medals, Commonwealth Games medals and Asian Games medals. They even lifted the Thomas Cup.
Yet the sport’s oldest tournament has repeatedly slipped through the fingers of the Indians.
Saina reached the final once in 2015. Two-time Olympic medalist and five-time World Championship medalist PV Sindhu has never reached the final here. Lakshya himself felt the pinch, finishing second in 2022 and falling in the semi-finals two years later.
But the limelight inevitably returns to Ahmedabad.
AHMEDABAD STADIUM NEEDS A TROPHY
Gautam Gambhir, Ajit Agarkar and Suryakumar Yadav survey the Narendra Modi Stadium pitch on the eve of the T20 World Cup final (PTI Photo)
For all its architectural grandeur and world-class infrastructure, the Narendra Modi Stadium remains a soul-searching colossus. In the mythology of Indian cricket, a place is hallowed not by seating capacity or LED rings, but by folklore – the nights when the home side refused to concede.
Wankhede has the 2011 World Cup. Eden Gardens has the 1993 Hero Cup and the 2001 Miracle.
Ahmedabad, despite its grandeur, is still haunted by the silence of November 19, 2023.
Until India lift a major trophy on this turf, the stadium is in danger of remaining a grand gallery rather than a fortress.
There is also a recurring criticism of the Ahmedabad crowd: that energy can evaporate the moment India finds itself in trouble. We saw this when Pat Cummins vowed to silence the blue sea, a promise he kept with chilling efficiency.
Now Mitchell Santner arrives with similar calm intent. For New Zealand, the goal is simple: turn the world’s largest cricket stadium into the world’s largest library.
Sunday’s psychological contest may be as much about noise as it is about running.
Perhaps the vastness of the area plays a role. Unlike the claustrophobic intensity of the Wankhede or the cauldron-roar of the Eden Gardens, Ahmedabad’s sound is often diffuse, trying to focus its fury in the center of the pitch. In the older cathedrals of Indian cricket, the crowd feels almost within reach of the action. Here the theater is grander – but sometimes more distant.
Therefore, the crowd must find its voice and maintain it.
Great stadiums are defined by nights when they refuse to shut up, nights when fans drag a stuttering team over the line. If India are to exorcise the ghosts of 2023 and break the BlackCaps jinx, the Motera faithful must provide the soundtrack.
Only then will the stadium truly become what its dimensions promise: a cathedral of Indian cricket rather than just its grandest monument.
A KNOWN TROUBLE FOR LAKSHYA
Lakshya Sen is 0-4 against his All England Open final opponent (BWF/Badminton Photo)
Another test of nerves awaits across the continents.
While the world’s attention remains on the sprawling suburbs of Ahmedabad, a quieter drama unfolds in the intimate arena of Birmingham. For Lakshya Sen, Sunday’s All England final is an encounter with a persistent shadow.
On the other side of the net is Lin Chun-yi, an explosive left-hander from Chinese Taipei who has repeatedly troubled the Indian.
Momentum, on paper, favors Lakshya. He is coming into the final after a 97-minute semi-final, battling cramps and punishing rallies, having also defeated Li Shifeng and world number one Shi Yuqi earlier in the tournament.
Yet against Lin, momentum rarely told the whole story.
The parallels with cricket are hard to ignore. Much like the New Zealand side that stunned India with a clinical 3–0 Test whitewash in 2024, Lin has shown a knack for calming Indian crowds.
At the India Open in January, he dismantled Lakshya in front of a partisan crowd in Delhi that turned the arena into a chorus of “dva rupay ki Pepsi” chants. Lin walked through the match with a dogged calm, reading the shift and pace of the room with insight as Lakshya searched for answers.
The matchup itself complicates the situation. As remarked coach Vimal Kumar after that defeatLin’s left-turning angles and steep strokes make him particularly difficult to read. Raise him even a little short and he punishes it mercilessly, bringing the shuttle down with a quickness that benefits from hesitation.
If Lakshya is to follow in the footsteps of his mentor Prakash Padukone and finally conquer the whole of England, he must translate tactical awareness into execution under the sport’s fiercest lights.
Two cities. Two obstacles.
And one shared hope that when Sunday turns to Monday in Ahmedabad and the lights dim in Birmingham, all that will be left of these long-standing shenanigans will be the stories of how they were finally broken.
– The end
Issued by:
Akshay Ramesh
Published on:
08 March 2026 05:00 IST
