Follow UsThe last two weeks have been quite a rollercoaster ride for the Indian team, who have had to face multiple questions about having a significant advantage over the other teams in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. While several cricketers have spoken about that, stating that there’s a big disadvantage for the opposition, former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin hits out at all those critics.
“Who doesn’t have an advantage, you tell me? In 2015, Australia had an advantage; they played all the matches in Test centres. In 2019, when England hosted the World Cup, didn’t they have an advantage?” Ashwin said on his YouTube live.
“They can’t play the Champions Trophy without India; that’s the reality. Without the Indian team, nothing can happen in the cricketing fraternity. India is the most popular team; people come and watch them everywhere, and they are incredibly good.”
“If you remove the administrators and the others, what did Rohit Sharma and co do? They played one of the best games of their life. So, what did they do?
While Ashwin reckoned that Rachin Ravindra getting the Player of the Tournament was well-deserved, the off-spinner insisted that India’s Varun Chakaravarthy was the more ‘deserving’ candidate.
The mystery spinner, who was playing his first 50-over ICC tournament, starred in a vital role for India, with nine wickets in three games. But even if you remove all the numbers, Varun’s impact on the games was quite evident in the way he bamboozled the batters.
“Varun Chakaravarthy should have been the Player of the Tournament. Who is the player of the tournament? Someone who has created an impact in the competition. Whenever he bowled, the opposition batters looked at his hand very closely without having a clue.
“Today, there was one ball to Tom Latham when Varun bowled a fast yorker. He’s creating that kind of an impact. India didn’t drop him from the first two matches; they hid him because he’s the X-factor. There were two people who made an impact in the tournament: one was Shreyas Iyer, and the other was Varun. Who had a bigger influence out of the two? Varun.”