The Indian cricket team is all set to play in the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 against New Zealand on 9th March 2025 at the iconic Dubai International Cricket Stadium. With a team filled with stars and players in form, India would be heavy favourites ahead of this tournament.
New Zealand have travelled more than 7000 KM during the Champions Trophy while India have been stationary at one venue. Many experts and pundits have stated that India have an undue advantage over all the other opponents! But do they really have an advantage?
If we break it down, we know that the large set of population that does not favour India or crib whenever India performs well, are the ones who are raising concerns about this. During the ICC meeting to decide the alternate venue for India during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, no team had opposed this.
Plus, India haven’t played a lot of matches in Dubai prior to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. And India have been practicing at the ICC Academy in Dubai on most of the occasions instead of the actual ground. And as iterated by Head Coach Gautam Gambhir at the post-match press conference after the India vs Australia Semi-Finals, the pitches at the ICC Academy are quite different.
Therefore, it proves that India are at the same pedestal as the other teams and taking a 1.5 hour flight from a neighbouring country should not be an excuse for lack of performances or failure.
Can India win the ICC Champions Trophy 2025?
India’s rock-solid team in the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 had all the ingredients of lifting the Cup for the first-time since ICC ODI World Cup 2011. But a heartbreak in the finals against Australia saw Rohit Sharma and co. getting their dreams shattered.
But cut to 2025 and India have knocked out Australia from the competition after a 4-wicket win in the semi-finals. India’s batting and bowling department have been performing exceedingly well and India’s depth in batting is augured well by all-rounders in the form of Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja.
Virat Kohli has once again activated his beast mode in ICC events and has mustered 217 runs so far in the tournament. He has smashed a century against Pakistan and narrowly missed out on a century against Australia.
In the bowling department, Mohammad Shami has been the cynosure of all eyes as he has bagged 8 wickets in the tournament and is the leading wicket-taker.
India do have the firepower to break their ICC ODI events hoodoo, but the question remains: can they overcome all their mental blockages in the all-important finals?
We feel yes, India will be winning the tournament. Based on all the reasons mentioned above and the fact that India recently lifted the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 points towards the fact that the Indian players can play a free brand of cricket. If they play fearless cricket in the finals against New Zealand then they will be able to overcome the final barrier.
