In 2007, Punit Bhatt, Assistant General Manager of Skoda India, was enjoying the view of the Indian cricket team celebrating their T20 World Cup victory on the streets of South Mumbai. In an interview, Bhatt recalls his favourite cricketing moments and his expectations during the upcoming T20 World Cup. 

You have been an avid cricket fan and as you know T20 world cup has become one of the most awaited festivals in India among fans and brands, what is the first memory you associate with watching the T20 world cup?

So, back in the day in 2007 when overall T20 was a new concept, we watched India winning the T20 World cup and I remember the entire Indian cricket team under the captaincy of MS Dhoni had come to Mumbai after winning the trophy. I went along with my friends to see the entire convoy of cricket players inside the open bus at Worli. So, that is like the first memory if you ask me about T20 World Cup like the team winning and celebrating it in Mumbai. 

Throughout the years, we have seen several cricketers, both Indian and foreign players becoming household names during world cup and playing in leagues like IPL. Who is your all-time favourite T20 cricketer and who are you looking forward to seeing the most in the upcoming T20 world cup?

So honestly for me MS Dhoni was one of the best T20 player India ever had, be it his speed, his right moment of aggression, his strategy towards winning. I think lot of points goes to him for turning T20 matches exciting. The way he has played it has left everybody amused and entertained. For the upcoming tournaments or with the new team, I always look forward to the performance of Indian cricketers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma is one such who is like a fast chaser. His chase is really fantastic, so yeah those are the two players that come to my mind.

T20 World Cup has given viewers incredible moments. What is your favouriteT-20 world cup memory? 

Yuvraj’s six sixes is definitely one of my favourite T20 World Cup moment. But I think MS Dhoni’s helicopter shot, although it might be invented in one of the ODIs but the helicopter shot became such a big phenomenon with the entire short format matches and people used to look forward to it. So, for me helicopter shot is the big moment that I look up to as one of the memories as well. 

Over the decades, we have seen world cup being one of the premium platforms for brands to launch TV ad campaigns that have been in our memory, any campaign that you recollect from world cup that you have admired the most?

The Vodafone Zoozoo campaign is one of the memorable and entertaining campaign that I recollect. That entire campaign during short format cricket matches became such a big hit and people started looking forward to other campaigns featuring ZooZoos. So, I think, that entire Vodafone Zoozoo campaign was a good experience during cricket matches.

With the ICC World T-20 around the corner and with an IPL recently that took place, which country according to you holds the edge in winning the coveted championship?

Being an Indian, I would always favour and always wish that India wins it again, because last time we missed it. But the probability with the current team we have today, I see that the chances of winning are very high. Another team I think which really stands the chance this time is England, because of the kind of the players they have and the kind of performance they are showing in other tournaments but like I said, at a personal level I still wish India wins.

The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup begins on 16th October live and exclusive only on the Star Sports Network with the much-awaited clash between India and Pakistan returning on 23rd October.