Former India Captain Sunil Gavaskar Heaps Praise on Rohit Sharma-Led Team After Champions Trophy Triumph
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar lavished praise on the Rohit Sharma-led squad following their thrilling victory in the Champions Trophy 2025 held in Dubai on Sunday. Gavaskar hailed this Indian team as the "best white-ball team on the planet," emphasizing their recent dominance in both ODI and T20I cricket.
The legendary batter also backed India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir in dismissing critics who claimed that India had an "undue advantage" by playing all their matches at the same venue during the tournament.
"Without a question, any team that reaches all three finals – the 50-over final (where they were runners-up), the T20 World Cup victory, and now the Champions Trophy – must be considered the best white-ball team on the planet," Gavaskar told India Today.
"There’s no doubt whatsoever. Cribbers might crib, as Gambhir said, but to be able to reach all these finals, with no home advantage, and still win, speaks for itself," he added.
Gavaskar’s remarks come after Gambhir had earlier told the "perpetual cribbers" to "grow up."
"First of all, this is as neutral a venue for us as it is for any other team. We have not played here. I don’t remember which tournament we played in this stadium last. And in fact, we didn’t plan anything like that. The plan was that if you pick two frontline spinners in the 15-man squad, then even if we played in Pakistan or anywhere, we would have picked two frontline spinners because it was a competition on the subcontinent. So, it was nothing like we wanted to set up a spinners’ trap. If you look at it, we only played one frontline spinner in the first three matches," Gambhir explained during a post-match press conference.
Former Pakistan spinner Danish Kaneria also dismissed the notion that India had an advantage by playing all their matches, including the final, in Dubai. He labeled such claims as baseless.
"For the next two or three days, there will be discussions about how Pakistan was the host and India won the trophy. Many people in Pakistan were talking about how India had the advantage. I don’t understand how such things can be said… (Dubai) It wasn’t India’s home ground. It used to be Pakistan’s home ground.
"I don’t think India has played matches in Dubai before the Champions Trophy. This same question was asked by a Pakistani journalist to Gautam Gambhir, and he gave a very apt and sharp response," Kaneria told IANS.
The Indian team’s remarkable consistency and ability to deliver under pressure have cemented their status as the world’s premier white-ball side, silencing critics and proving their mettle on the global stage.
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