India keeper-batter KL Rahul was over the moon after the Men in Blue defeated New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and became three-winners. They defeated Mitchell Santner and co by 4 wickets in Dubai on Sunday, March 9.
New Zealand posted 251/7 on board after choosing to bat first post winning the toss. Daryl Mitchell and Michael Bracewell starred with half-centuries, while for India, Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav took two wickets each.
Rohit Sharma set the tone for the chase with a game-winning 76 off 83 balls. Along with Shubman Gill, he added a 105-run opening combination. The right-handed batsman was unable to score three runs. KL Rahul (unbeaten 34 off 33) and Shreyas Iyer (48 runs off 62 balls) contributed vital middle-order runs.
Ravindra Jadeja hit the winning runs and won the final by 4 wickets, lifting the Champions Trophy for the third time.
KL Rahul is overjoyed to have moved to the No. 6 batting position, citing his rigorous "preparation" and continued game progress. Rahul, who usually bats at number five, scored 140 runs in four innings in Dubai despite being dropped to a lower level in the Champions Trophy.
"It's really pleasing for me. The work that I'm putting into different roles requires a lot of preparation, work outside the cricket field, thinking about how I need to take each game and how I need to perform in different situations, and watching some of the players that bat at 5, 6 and how they've been successful," said Rahul following India's Champions Trophy triumph on Sunday.
Rahul expressed his happiness at assuming this new role for the team.
"I've been taught from a very early age by my coaches that cricket is a team game and whatever the team requires of you, you need to be able to accept that and find a way to put in performances for the team and understand what your role is, understand what the responsibility is, understand what it takes to be successful batting in different positions," he added.
The Bengaluru player scored an undefeated 42 against the Australians, while his 32 not out helped India win a close chase against the Kiwis. Even though he only scored 140 runs overall, his strike rate of 98 shows how much of an impact those runs had on the outcome of the match.
Rahul was ecstatic to get the Champions Trophy as a reward for his efforts.
"I'm very happy at the moment, ICC victories are not so easy to get. It's my first one so I'm very happy over the moon and really happy with the way we've played this entire tournament and it's been a complete team effort," he noted.
Rahul contributed significantly to stumping and catching, and he was also a confident presence behind the wickets. Because "keeping was not an easy task in these conditions where spinners dominated," the 32-year-old was overjoyed.
"It's not something very new and the role of a wicketkeeper-batsman that I'm doing here in the Indian team, I think from 2019 or 2020. I do wicketkeeping in IPL as well. But I think this is the most challenging place that I've kept wickets in. I worked really hard and I have to mention our fielding coach Dilip sir also, he worked very hard with me…his tips and whatever he noticed about my keeping, so it worked," he added.
India has now won the Champions Trophy thrice- 2002 (shared with Sri Lanka), 2013, and now 2025.
(ANI inputs)
