Twelve Indians played across their five games in the 2025 Champions Trophy. All of them contributed, making it a team outing like no other.
The piece can begin with a TL;DR version. Six Indian batters – Hardik Pandya included – either averaged at least 45 or struck at 100 at the 2025 Champions Trophy or both. Six bowlers either averaged below 26 or went at under 4.80 an over or both.
Is it a common occurrence? The West Indies won the first two World Cups without losing a match. In 1975, Roy Fredericks failed with the bat and Vanburn Holder with the ball. Neither Desmond Haynes nor Alvin Kallicharran had a memorable 1979.
In 1996, Sri Lanka became the next team to go unbeaten in an entire World Cup. Contrary to popular belief, Romesh Kaluwitharana had a very ordinary outing there, making only 73 in six innings. Pramodya Wickramasinghe and Ravindra Pushpakumara shared second-seamer duties – and had only one wicket to show between them from six games.
What about the great Australians of the 2000s who went through two World Cups (and a bit on either side) without a defeat? Matthew Hayden made a solitary fifty in 11 games in 2003. Even in 2007, the most dominant men’s World Cup team performance of all time, Michael Hussey made 87 runs in six innings without reaching fifty.
A holistic team game without a weak link is, thus, rare. None of the twelve Indians had a bad tournament here. All of them played a part in this journey. However, to elaborate how, it is perhaps pertinent to relive the tournament.
Bangladesh
Mohammed Shami works in mysterious ways. At the 2023 World Cup, he had a tournament of a lifetime – his 24 wickets cost him 10.70 apiece – but here he was barely back from an injury layoff. Worse, he had to lead the attack (there was no Jasprit Bumrah) in conditions that were not expected to aid him. So he took five wickets. Harshit Rana got three and Axar Patel two (could have been a hat-trick but for Rohit Sharma’s drop).
Rohit then brought on the heavy artillery – overkill, perhaps, against a target of 229 – as he has done over the past few years. Once he fell, Shubman Gill eased his way to an unbeaten hundred, while KL Rahul ended things in a flurry of strokes.
Pakistan
Hardik Pandya had bowled only four overs against Bangladesh, while Kuldeep Yadav had been economical but wicketless. Against, Pandya struck at 41-0, then at 159-3, and went under four an over. Then, at 200-5 in the 43rd over, Kuldeep struck with consecutive balls, and later claimed a third.
Neither Virat Kohli nor Shreyas Iyer had reached 25 against Bangladesh. Here, after Gill made 46, they controlled the chase, Kohli with an unbeaten hundred, Iyer with 56. India were home in the 43rd over.
New Zealand
India made their only change of the tournament here. They left out Rana, who had 15.2-0-61-4 across the two matches, because they felt Varun Chakravarthy would do a better job. It played out like a dream.
Iyer, without a central contract, first made 79 to lift India from 30-3. Having done their bit with the bat in the competition, Axar and Pandya now stepped up with the bat, with crucial forties as India made 249-9. Pandya then struck early; Varun ran through the New Zealand line-up with five wickets; and the other three spinners got one middle-order batter each. The triumph probably erased any doubt over the four-spinner combination.
Semi-final: Australia
Australia knew they had to score quickly to give their inexperienced bowlers a chance. Travis Head, their best bet, took his time – until Varun took him out with his first ball. Jadeja struck two vital blows, while Shami’s three wickets included Steve Smith.
India then became 43-2 in pursuit of 265, but yet again Kohli stepped up. Support came from Iyer, then from Axar. Having not done much since the Bangladesh match, Rahul now controlled the chase. He took on the bowlers to take the pressure off Kohli. When Kohli finally fell, Pandya sent Adam Zampa into the stands off consecutive balls to determine the fate. Rahul stood at the other end, looking unhurried but making 42 not out in 34 balls.
Final: New Zealand
On a pitch that provided turn, the Indian spinners shared 38 overs. Between them, Varun and Kuldeep got four of the first five wickets to fall. While all this happened at the other end, Jadeja had 1-30 from his 10 overs and Axar 0-29 from his eight. Four spinners have bowled in ODIs before, but never had all four produced this quality over a phase this long in a major men’s final.
Barring the Bangladesh blitz, Rohit never exactly had that one memorable innings in the tournament. Now he stepped up, treating the fast bowlers with disdain to take India to 59-0 after eight overs. His 76 (10 boundary hits in 83 balls) was impactful enough to let India go mostly at a run a ball (11 boundaries in 211 balls).
Of course, Rohit did not do it alone. Gill played his part with 31. Iyer (48) and Axar (29) ensured the difference between runs required and balls left never exceeded five. And when both got out, Rahul assumed control: when it got to 40 in 36, he hit four and two to bring the target down; for the rest, he nurdled the ball into gaps to pick up runs as Pandya played his shots.
By then, every Indian batter had at least two innings of note in the tournament. The bowlers, several significant spells. Axar and Pandya had contributed in both departments. The only remaining bit was Jadeja, who – despite bowling with metronomic precision – had not had a role with the bat. True, his presence at eight allowed India’s four, five, six, seven to take more risks, but there was no memorable moment of Jadeja wielding the bat.
So he hit the winning boundary.
