- By Himanshu Badola
- Wed, 08 Oct 2025 09:21 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Rohit Sharma made an interesting statement while recalling India's ICC Champions Trophy 2025 title success ahead of his much-awaited ODI comeback.
Rohit, who made his first public appearance since being removed as the ODI captain, credited former head coach Rahul Dravid for the Champions Trophy success, while coming up with no mention of the current coach Gautam Gambhir. Notably, Gambhir was India's head coach when India lifted the trophy, but Rohit believed that the process for the upcoming success was established during Rahul Dravid’s tenure, praising the team for embracing the ideology of the former captain-coach pair.
Under Rohit and Dravid, India managed to bounce back from the heartbreaking loss in the 2023 ODI World Cup final against Australia in Ahmedabad to win the next two ICC trophies - the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 Champions Trophy.
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"Look, I love that team, loved playing with them, and it's a journey that we were all into for many years. It's not about one or two years of work. It was about getting into work after many years," Rohit said.
"We'd come so close to winning that trophy many times, but we couldn't just get over the line. That is where everyone decided that we need to do something different, and there are two ways to look at it."
"There's always a thought of doing that and then actually going and doing that. It cannot be done by one or two players. We needed everyone to buy into that thought, which was good for everyone," Rohit said.
Rohit was named in India's 15-member squad for the upcoming away ODI series against Australia, along with Virat Kohli, which begins in Perth on October 19. Both the veterans are set to play under the new skipper, Shubman Gill. Rohit and Virat's last action for India came during the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand.
"All the guys who took part in that competition (Champions Trophy) got into that thought process of how to win games and how to challenge ourselves and not be complacent and not to take anything for granted," he said.
"Those were the qualities that we tried to bring in, and we thought it was a good method of just going and doing that repeatedly. Everyone enjoyed that process. Once we got over the line when we won the first game, we completely put that game aside and then started focusing on the next one."
"That was really good from the team, and that is something that helped me and Rahul bhai when we were planning for the (2024) T20 World Cup, and then on to the Champions Trophy. We just carried it well.
"In 2023, although we didn't cross the line in the finals, we set out to do something as a team, and everyone did that," he added.