Shubman Gill "very hungry" to win ICC Champions Trophy 2025

Indian opener Shubman Gill is “very hungry” to win the 2025 Champions Trophy, starting on February 19. The Men in Blue will commence their campaign against Bangladesh on February 20 before taking on Pakistan on February 23. Their last group game will be against New Zealand in March. India will play all their games in Dubai, including the knockouts (if they qualify).

“I’m definitely very hungry, and it is something that you always dream of as a kid, and I’ve played one ICC tournament and came very close to winning a senior men’s trophy," Gill, who was part of India’s 2023 ODI World Cup squad, said on a video shared by the International Cricket Council (ICC) on their Instagram account.

“There is no space for defeat only. I think the top teams are playing, and it’s very exciting and very grueling, and you know that you don’t have any margin of error, so that is very exciting,” added Gill, who has scored the third-most runs in ODIs since 2023. The right-handed batter has slammed 1641 runs in his last 32 ODIs at an average of 58.61 and a strike rate of 102.9.

India lost to Pakistan in the grand finale of the 2017 Champions Trophy but won the 2013 edition under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Talking about the match, Gill said:  “I remember watching it from home. Whenever I think of that Champion’s Trophy, there are a couple of things that I remember. 

“One is Mahi bhai jumping when he missed the Ashwin bhai ball, and I think they (England) needed five runs off the last ball. The batsman misses, and then the commentators say, ‘The batsman misses, Dhoni misses, but it doesn’t matter,’ and then everybody is jumping and then seeing everyone dancing in the white coat when they were getting that trophy."