Follow UsAfter India won the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai without their ace paceman Jasprit Bumrah, former Indian spinner R Ashwin said the Men in Blue can now actually dominate world cricket like Australia did from the late 90s to 2010.
“I think the world cricketing fraternity will take some time to catch up with Indian team if we will go on with this flow,” Ashwin said on his Hindi YouTube channel Ash Ki Baat.
“In the future, it will be a huge advantage for India’s next generation. India can replicate what Australia did in the 90s and till 2010. India have that arsenal and infrastructure.
“We just need to remind everyone that we have not won because of the batting, it was because of our bowling. Please look after the bowlers. From the grassroot level, we must encourage the bowlers.”
Just like they did in the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies, India won the Champions Trophy without losing a single game. After the first two matches, India decided to go with four spinners - Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja - and it turned out to be a masterstroke.
“We there was no Jasprit Bumrah and we won the trophy without Jasprit Bumrah, isn’t it amazing. what does it tell you about the Indian cricket? I am so very happy. This particularly CT is completely dedicated to the bowlers. Without Jasprit Bumrah, we won hats off to the bowlers.
“In 2026 World T20 team, write the names of Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy and then pick your squad. It will be one hell of an attack.”
Talking about India’s previous defeats in the ICC knockouts in the last 10 years, Ashwin said: “I always felt that luck was not going our way all this year when it comes to the ICC events. We were always a quality side.
In the last ten years we could have won more. The 2017 CT final, it was a par score at Oval, we didn’t win, the 2014 T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, we lost the final against Sri Lanka. But this feeling is amazing.
“I have said this after we won the T20 World Cup that now we are going to win two or three on the bounce. I was a bit nervous but I was confident. It was written all over, it was New Zealand who were under pressure.
“I am so happy for Rohit and GG (Gautam Gambhir). Especially for GG, imagine what he must be going through. We lost the home series against New Zealand. But he took a brave decision replacing Jasprit Bumrah with Varun Chakaravarthy.”