India won the title by defeating New Zealand by four wickets in the final of the Champions Trophy 2025. With this victory, the head coach of the Indian team Gautam Gambhir achieved a special achievement. Gambhir as an Indian cricketer, became the first player to win the ICC Trophy as a player and coach and he has achieved the same feat in the IPL.
The ICC became the fifth person in the world to win the ICC tournament as both serious players and coaches in the ICC competition. Earlier, Rahul Dravid (India), Darren Lehman (Australia), Geoff Marsh (Australia) and Gary Kirsten (South Africa) achieved this feat.
India’s spectacular victory in the final
In the final match, New Zealand batted first and scored 251 runs for 7 wickets. The Indian bowlers bowled well and stopped New Zealand from making a big score. In response, captain Rohit Sharma laid the foundation of India’s victory by playing a brilliant innings of 76 runs. Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Akshar Patel and Hardik Pandya also contributed significantly. Finally Ravindra Jadeja won India by hitting a four off the last ball of the 49th over.
This is Gambhir’s first major trophy.
This win was very special for Gautam Gambhir as it was his first ICC Trophy as head coach. He took over the captaincy of the team 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 ICC tournaments
Prior to Gambhir, Darren Lehman won the 2015 World Cup to Australia, while as a player he was also part of the teams winning the World Cup in 1999 and 2003. Geoff Marsh won the World Cup victory to Australia as a coach in 1999 and won the World Cup in 1987 as a player. Gary Kirsten played a key role in winning India in 2011, while as a player he was part of the South African team that won the Champions Trophy in 1998.
This journey is challenging for Gambhir.
Initially there was a lot of pressure on Gambhir. Under his leadership, India lost the ODI series from Sri Lanka, then lost the domestic Test series from New Zealand and lost 2024–25 border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia. Prior to the Champions Trophy, India won the ODI and T20 series against England and achieved the rhythm. Then performing brilliantly in the tournament, the team won all the matches and defeated Australia in the semi -finals to enter the finals.
