Mahendra Singh Dhoni insists India must now build on their success at the ICC World Twenty20 tournament.
Captain challenges India to maintain standards
Mahendra Singh Dhoni insists India must now build on their success at the ICC World Twenty20 tournament.
The wicketkeeper-batsman's team claimed the inaugural title with
a thrilling five-run victory over arch-rivals Pakistan on Monday.
The feat was made even more impressive by the fact their star players Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid did not participate in the event.
With those veterans set to bow out of the game soon, Dhoni now wants to see the new generation go on and establish themselves as the world's best.
"This is something I will treasure for my whole life," Dhoni told
Sky Sports 1. "We had a young side coming to the tournament no-one expected us to win.
"After the way we lost at the World Cup it will help repair some of that, but we have to keep doing it. We are going to be off to Australia soon so we have to keep doing consistently well."
Teamwork
Irfan Pathan took three wickets for 16 runs at a crucial stage in the match to take the Man of the Match award.
The left-arm seamer admits it was a tense conclusion, which saw Misbah-ul-Haq hole out to short fine leg to lose the match, but feels India's strong unit made the difference.
Pathan said: "It's a great feeling, a great comeback from my side and obviously winning the world cup is amazing.
"When I came on I was under a bit of pressure, but I held my nerve and bowled in the right areas.
"All the bowlers did well throughout the tournament. We all played pretty well as a team we batted really well we fielded pretty well and I think we deserved it."
India start their seven-match one-day series against Australia on 29th September before taking on Pakistan again in November.
