India Wins ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Securing Their Second ICC Title in 10 Months Under Rohit Sharma’s Leadership
This Sunday, we were sitting at the edge of our seats in front of our televisions to watch the final of a series that could end our long wait for a 50-over ICC Title since 2013 or lead to another heartbreak at the hands of the Kiwis, who are truly the quiet giants of the cricketing realm. As fate would have it, with a brilliant four hit by Ravindra Jadeja at number 8, India clinched the ICC Champions’ Trophy 2025 and secured their 2nd ICC Trophy in the past 10 months.
In just a few months, Rohit’s leadership has led us to claim a T20 World Cup title eight months ago in the Caribbean and now the Champions Trophy, positioning him just behind MS Dhoni as the most successful Indian captain in ICC events. The seniority and experience of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja have significantly contributed to guiding the otherwise youthful team in the right direction.
There was a lot of buzz around Rohit’s retirement from the format, but he concluded the press conference with a clarification: “One more thing, I am not going to retire from this format… just to make sure that no rumors are spread.” His decision is certainly backed by his remarkable batting performance in the finals, where he was awarded Man of the Match. He played a key role in breaking India’s 50-over ICC Event drought.
As the saying goes, “Batsmen win you matches, but bowlers win you tournaments.” Our spin quartet—Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Varun Chakravarthy—performed exceptionally well on the Dubai surface. The promising start by Rachin Ravindra of New Zealand’s team was the predictable obstacle, and this led spinners to an early start. On his very first delivery, Kuldeep dismissed Rachin, who struggled to read the googly and ended up missing it, resulting in crashing the stumps. In the following over, he got Kane Williamson out, who might be the strongest opponent of them all.
Despite a shaky start, New Zealand managed to score 251 runs in the first innings with the team’s support, but that wasn’t quite enough of a total to defend, seeing the depth of India’s batting side. Even after Rohit and Virat’s dismissal, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer managed to stay in character and did their job quite well. This win was a complete team effort and not a one-man game, as every single player contributed to managing a low total to chase and then chasing those runs. Shreyas’s dance moves were the perfect embodiment of how we all were feeling about this much-awaited win.
As the head coach of Team India, Gautam Gambhir’s contributions as a former Indian player deserve significant recognition. Since he took on this role, India has experienced losses in an overseas series and a series at home; however, in spite of the criticism, he guided Team India to victory in this tournament, maintaining an undefeated record throughout.
The trophy that the team held in their arms while wearing white blazers not only brought joy to those players out there, but it also became the source of joy for millions of Indian fans who watched and cheered for Team India during the tournament. The celebrations felt so intimate that we could hear the crackling of firecrackers from our homes. As said, “cricket is not just a game, it’s an emotion,” and in India, it is as true as it can be.