Swaraat / Swaraat Editor Desk
Bharat emerged victorious beating one of the series favorite New Zealand in the final to lift the ICC Champions trophy for the third time (In 2002 edition, Bharat was joint winner with Sri Lanka) in its ninth edition. Bharat had a sweet revenge against their loses to Kiwis in 2000 edition of Champions trophy and WTC final. Pakistan were awarded the hosting right after becoming champion in the eighth edition played in 2017. Due to security concerns, BCCI refused to travel to Pakistan.
Hence, Bharat’s matches were held in Dubai. Bharat remained unbeaten throughout the series by winning over Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand in round robin matches. They trumped over Australia in semi-finals to reach the final. While New Zealand lost to India in round robin phase but won their matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh to qualify for semi-finals. They defended 362 against South Africa and came to final of ICC Champions Trophy.
Bharat remained unbeaten in the recently held T20 world cup also, to become the winner of the event. Even in the ODI world cup they were unbeaten till they lost to Australia in the final. Bharat had the dubious distinction of lossing the toss for the twentieth time consecutively during the final match of the series.
Some Ex-Cricketers raked up the one ground controversy against Bharat, a congress politician took a dig at Captain Rohit Sharma for fitness. The team and the captain let their game talk to win the tournament and Man of match award respectively. Bharat started the tournament with set back of not having Jasprit Bumrah in the team, New Zealand for their part didn’t have Matt Henry for the final.
Many cricket fans and sports commentators were up-in-arms against Coach Gautam Gambhir for the teams dismal performance against New Zealand in the recently concluded home series and Border Gavaskar Trophy. Few had questions his selection as coach as well, due to his political background though he was an Ex-Cricketer with reasonable credentials. This victory would have silenced his critics and Naysayers.
Bharat’s supremacy on the cricket field has been reiterated with the victory, all the eleven players contributed throughout the tournament that culminated into the teams performance on the final. The Champions have brought the trophy home, yet again.