After winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand on Sunday, India’s stalwart batter Virat Kohli shared his thoughts on the title win and said that he is happy as the team was able to play as a unit.
In the final, it was Rohit Sharma who led the way. In the semi-final, it was Virat Kohli with the bat and Mohammed Shami with the ball, among others.
India won five straight games to claim the Champions Trophy 2025, and in each of those contests, a handful of their star players shone brightly. Those contributions led to another title-yielding run in a major ICC event.
Kohli exemplified that in Dubai, scoring an unbeaten ton against Pakistan and a crucial 84 off 98 balls against Australia to help his side qualify for the decider.
“I think to win titles, which has been missing in the past, the whole team must step up in different games. If you look at this tournament, over the course of five matches, everyone has put their hand up somewhere or another,” Kohli said after India’s memorable Final win against New Zealand as quoted by ICC.
These are the things, after playing for so long, you look forward to. Being in situations where you are put under pressure, and you walk in, and you put your hand up.”
After Rohit took full advantage of the new ball, it was Shreyas Iyer that came in and played a commanding helping hand, as India went about surging towards the Black Caps’ total of 251.
Shreyas scored a clutch 48 through the middle overs, where runs had proven hard to come by on the Dubai surface, which was enough to set up KL Rahul for finishing duties, with one over to spare.
“That is why we ended up winning this tournament. People have made such impactful knocks and produced such impactful spells, and it is only a collective effort that can win you a title. I am just so happy we were able to play as a unit and really enjoy ourselves. We have had such an amazing time as a team. It has been an amazing tournament for us,” Kohli continued.
One of the stories of the Champions Trophy has been India’s mid-campaign inclusion of Varun Chakaravarthy, who took 5/42 against the Kiwis in the group stage, in his first tournament appearance. He would go on to become a crucial member of India’s knockout stage run, finishing with nine wickets from his three games.
Chakaravarthy was a key cog in his side’s spin bowling cartel that, game after game, choked the life out of their opponent’s batting innings.
Kuldeep Yadav was the other slow bowler that reaped rewards, picking up two scalps in the Final, while Ravindra Jadeja’s accurate and quality execution was also on full display, finishing with figures of 1/30 off 10 overs.
It’s now back-to-back ICC events for India’s Men’s team, after their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup success last year. It sets them up to be the team to beat at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2028. (ANI)
