WWE legend recreates Rohit Sharma's viral T20 World Cup celebration moment after shutting 'Lionel Messi' claims

Moments after India completed their hour-long celebrations at the Kensington Oval in Barbados last Saturday with a T20 World Cup trophy haul on beating South Africa by just seven runs in the final, a video of captain Rohit Sharma went viral on social media. It pertained to his walk before taking the T20 World Cup trophy from BCCI secretary Jay Shah. While the general claim was that Rohit recreated Lionel Messi's iconic moment from the 2022 FIFA World Cup, WWE legend Ric Flair shut the talk with a video proof.

In the video that went viral, Kuldeep Yadav was seen telling Rohit during the medal-presentation ceremony about Messi's trophy-celebration walk after Argentina had won the World Cup trophy after beating France in the final in Qatar two years back. And Rohit did make an attempt in pulling that off , with many on social media even agreeing to it. But Flair reckoned that it was rather a ‘Ric Flair strut.’

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, the two-tme WWE Hall of Famer tweeted, “.@ImRo45 Taking A Page Out Of My Playbook! WOOOOO!”

Three days later, the 16-time world champion recreated Rohit's viral celebration to show as a proof it was it indeed a ‘Ric Flair strut.’ He captioned the video: " The Worldwide Sensation! WOOOOO!

Rohit played a vital role in India's T20 World Cup win, scoring 257 runs in eight innings, the second-most by a batter in the tournament. Although he suffered an early dismissal as part of India's top-order collapse in the powerplay, India relied on Virat Kohli and the former India captain, despite struggling to find his rhythm through the course of the tournament, delivered when it mattered the most. He scored a 59-ball 76 and stitched a match-winning 72-run stand with Axar Patel as India set a target of 177 runs.

India did find themselves under pressure when Heinrich Klaasen reduced the equation to 25 off 25 with his blitzkrieg fifty, but the bowlers bounced back under pressure in the death overs to restrict South Africa to seven runs short of the target.

This was India's second T20 World Cup win, a first world title in 13 years and a maiden ICC trophy in 11 years.