India’s journey to winning the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 was full of ups and downs; their journey from start to finish was not smooth by any means.

Shivam Dube, recognising an important moment in India’s title-winning campaign, identified India’s loss to South Africa as that moment. Dube, while talking to The Indian Express, admitted that the loss made the team rethink their strategies and, in the end, it contributed to their better performance in the tournament.
The loss happened to be the first match of the Super Eight stage. Even though the team had been doing great earlier in the competition, Dube mentioned that the defeat forced the players to improve their game substantially.

We actually hit our peak as a team after our loss to South Africa. We were playing pretty well before that game, but the whole team got serious after that. We turned out to be a completely different team, and our best performance was in the final, Dube shared.

What he said just showshow a singleloss really joltedthe players outof their comfort zone.The team possessed both skill and depth but it wasthe loss that motivated them to hone their focus and performance.India, bythe time they made it tothe final, was a side thathad undergone a complete change, more determined, more disciplined,and more capable of delivering under pressure.

Dube was one of the key contributors to the team’s success in the tournament.The all, rounder mentioned that clear instructions by the head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav made him see what exactly was expected of him.He was asked to do only two things: keep batting at a high strike rate and bowling economically even in pressure situations.