AHMEDABAD: New Zealand coach Rob Walter believes his young team will be back and hungry for success at the next Twenty20 World Cup on home soil after their bittersweet experience in the recently concluded edition.

The Black Caps played some fine cricket to get to Sunday’s final only to lose a fourth short-format World Cup title-decider in 11 years, going down to India by a thumping 96 runs at Ahmedabad’s Narendra Modi Stadium.

Walter said he was proud of his players and sensed there was a real determination to finally land a short-format world title for New Zealand when they co-host the 2028 T20 World Cup with Australia.

“I think there’s a real hunger in the group, having sort of tasted the success here and fallen short,” he told reporters by video call before leaving Ahmedabad on Tuesday.

“I think there’s a real hunger as a group to work their way towards the World Cup in 2028, especially seeing as it’s a home World Cup.

“I’d expect a large number, if not all, of that group to be pushing hard to be part of the 2028 team, trying to go that one step further.”

The nine-wicket win over South Africa in the semi-finals, featuring Finn Allen’s record 33-ball century, was the highlight of the tournament, but Walter conceded that the final had left him with mixed feelings about the month in India and Sri Lanka.

“You’re always pretty proud of making a World Cup final,” he added. “I thought we played well when we needed to, and then obviously pretty disappointed we didn’t play our best cricket in the final. “So I suppose it’s a classic bittersweet moment. One, to play well to make the final, but then to just not be at our best on the last day of the tournament.”

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2026