Exclusive: 'MS Dhoni is going out there to fetch us the trophy': Paddy Upton recalls Gary Kirsten's words on the 11th anniversary of India's 2011 World Cup win

Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai ended a 28 year wait for the trophy and gave over a billion Indians something very special to celebrate. Apart from the title-winning hit by Dhoni, Ravi Shastri’s fervent commentary "Dhoni, finishes it off in style, India lifts the World Cup after 28 years" still reverberates in every Indian cricket fan’s ears. As Team India celebrates their 11th anniversary of the 2011 World Cup win on April 2, TimesofIndia.com spoke to the then strength and mental conditioning coach of the Dhoni-led team in 2011, Paddy Upton to take a walk down memory lane.

Upton, who has joined the Rajasthan Royals coaching staff for IPL 2022, in an exclusive interview with TimesofIndia.com talked about that historic April night, working with coach Gary Kirsten, Dhoni changing his batting position and going out to bat ahead of Yuvraj Singh at the last minute, Virat Kohli’s transformation, Sachin Tendulkar’s role in the title win and much more... India lifted the World Cup trophy in 2011. You were the strength and mental condition coach of that MS Dhoni-led victorious Indian team. Take us down memory lane and talk to us about that historic day on April 2, 2011...There are so many memories. My earliest memory starts sort of 10 months out from the World Cup, where we played in the Asia Cup final, interestingly, against Sri Lanka. We were preparing for that in the morning and Gary Kirsten asked me a question, "If this was the World Cup final, are we ready to win? And the answer was, no, I don't think we are ready. And that really sparked off the question and the intense focus went into what we needed to do in the next 10 months to prepare this team (for the World Cup). So, when we arrived at the Wankhede Stadium in early April