Pakistan legend Wasim Akram stated even if the present Indian side had played all of their games in Pakistan, they would still have won the Champions Trophy 2025. India chose not to visit Pakistan because of security concerns, thus they played all of their games—including the championship match against New Zealand—in Dubai. The Indian team won every game to win the Champions Trophy, despite accusations that they had an "advantage" by playing at the same location.
Wasim Akram on India's win
India could have won the title anywhere in the world, Akram stated during an appearance on the Dressing Room show. The renowned bowler also believes that India's winning run in the previous two ICC tournaments demonstrates their leadership and depth.
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"This Indian team would have won it anywhere in the world. Yes, there were a lot of talks, but once decided that India would play all of their matches in Dubai and had they played in Pakistan, they would have won there as well. They won the 2024 T20 World Cup without losing a game, they went on to win the Champions Trophy without losing even one game which shows the depth in their cricket, that shows the leadership," Akram said.
Despite the lackluster results over the last few months, Akram also commended the BCCI for supporting coach Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma. Despite the Border-Gavaskar Trophy defeat and other disappointing outcomes, the renowned bowler believed that common sense ultimately won out, and this enabled India win the championship in Dubai.
"If you remember they lost to New Zealand 3-0 in Test series at home, lost the Border-Gavaskar trophy and lost the series in Sri Lanka so they were under pressure to remove the captain, the coach but sanity prevailed. BCCI backed them, said this is our captain, this is our coach and now they are the champions of the champion," he added.
With their bowling performance, India was able to limit New Zealand to 251 runs on Sunday. India won the match by four wickets thanks to the batting, which managed to carry the team across the finish line despite a little wobble.