India won the title by beating New Zealand by four wickets in the final of the Champions Trophy 2025. With this win, Gautam Gambhir, the lead coach of the Indian team, achieved a special achievement. He has become the first player to win the ICC trophy as an Indian cricketer, a serious player and coach and has achieved the same achievement in the IPL.
At the ICC event, he became the fifth person in the world to win the ICC tournament as both a serious player and coach. Earlier, Rahul Dravid (India), Darren Lehman (Australia), Geoff Marsh (Australia) and Gary Kirsten (South Africa) achieved the feat.
India’s brilliant victory in the final
In the final match, New Zealand batted first and scored 251 for 7. Indian bowlers bowled well and prevented New Zealand from reaching a big score. In reply, captain Rohit Sharma laid the foundation for India’s victory by playing a brilliant innings of 76. Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Akshar Patel and Hardik Pandya also made significant contributions. Finally, Ravindra Jadeja won India by scoring fours on the last ball of the 49th over.
This first big trophy for serious
This victory was very special for Gautam Gambhir as it was his first ICC trophy as a major coach. He took the team’s arch in place of Rahul Dravid last year. As a coach, Dravid gave India a 2024 T20 World Cup title.
Legendary players and coaches who won the ICC tournament
Prior to Gambhir, Darren Lehman led Australia to win the 2015 World Cup, while as a player, he was also part of the World Cup winning team in 1999 and 2003. Geoff Marsh won the World Cup as a coach in 1999 and won the World Cup as a player in 1987. Gary Kirsten played an important role in helping India win the World Cup in 2011, while as a player he was part of the Champions Trophy winner South Africa team in 1998.
Challenging this trip for serious
There was a lot of pressure on serious initially. Under his leadership, India lost the ODI series against Sri Lanka, then lost the home test against New Zealand, and also lost the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. Prior to the Champions Trophy, India won the ODI and T20 series against England again. Then, by performing brilliantly in the tournament, the team won all the matches and defeated Australia in the semifinals and entered the final.
