Team India are three time Champions Trophy winners!

[00:00:08] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Edges & Sledges Cricket Podcast where India are champions of the Champions Trophy. Champions Trophy champions, trophy champions. DJ, what's the word? I don't even know what the articulation is but I'm excited. We have picked up another ICC trophy within the last 12 months. How are you doing, man? What a great day to be recording.

[00:00:31] It is great. Leave aside the doubts around the format, leave aside doubts around like whether ODI Cricket is the future. An ICC trophy in a like cupboard which has been pretty bare in the last decade and two within the last nine months delivered by Mr. Rohit Sharma. So India now hold two of the four ICC trophies at this point.

[00:00:58] Yeah, it's a bad kind of time to bring up the statistic. DJ, are you there? Are we having tech issues already? Yeah, it seems like it. Okay, it's a bad time to bring up the statistic but not only is it two ICC tournaments in a row, but actually in the last three ICC tournaments we've only lost one match. Undefeated through the T20 World Cup.

[00:01:27] Undefeated through the Champions Trophy and lost one. Yes, it was the match that mattered but lost one match in the 50 World Cup. I mean, that is staggering. DJ, like yes, you lost a five-run five but what a run these boys have been on.

[00:01:42] It's phenomenal, right? Like you have to recognize, yeah, we can all talk about 19 November, 2023, right? Forget about that. This goes back to the Champions Trophy or the ICC knockout as it was in 2000 where India lost in the final to New Zealand. Chris Kane scored, I think, 124 not out. This was Yuvraj Singh making his debut in this tournament. Zaheer Khan made their debuts in this tournament.

[00:02:07] That's how far back we're going, right? So this is the pain of that has been erased. This Champions Trophy 2017, some of that pain has been erased. I mean, the host nation, Pakistan, beat India. Of course, there's a whole different chat about there was nothing to do with Pakistan by the time the final got there.

[00:02:26] But everybody knew there's a possibility, right? And then the New Zealand hurt that's been like the 2021 World Test Championship, the 2019 exit in the semi-final, the heartbreaks that they've given us. I mean, there's a lot of, I mean, probably not as elated as we were when we won the T20 World Cup because the game was much more exciting. There was the Bumrah stuff and like we came back from the dead to win an ICC trophy.

[00:02:53] This was much more clinical, but there's so much context to it. And it feels much more redeeming to have won it undefeated, beating Australia who beat us in that 2023 World Cup final, beating New Zealand who are probably one of the teams that look like could have beaten India. So, yeah, I mean, there's a lot going in favor of this win. So, very happy. And Roku is going nowhere, as I predicted.

[00:03:21] I told you that it's big. Yeah, a lot to unpack. And we will talk about the player retirements and stuff, but you hit on a lot of stuff. We will spend a little bit of time. I'm going to go through because it's one of the tournaments, I almost said World Cups, but one of the tournaments where actually it felt like a true team effort. And that was epitomized by nothing short of Virat Kohli, one player of the match in a game-winning chase, or game-winning innings in a chase against the Aussies. And then didn't score in the final against New Zealand.

[00:03:51] But Rohit did. Shreyas was consistent. Rahul was consistent. Gosh, everybody did well with the ball. Just overall phenomenal. So, we'll come to that. DJ, let me ask you, I guess, before the start of this tournament, where you and I talked a lot, including last week, about how it felt a little bit like a damn squib. Three rained out tournaments. What's the relevance of this format? Let me ask you one more question. Will we see another Champions Trophy, or are India going to be perennial holders of the Champions Trophy?

[00:04:21] So, we're three-time winners now. Interestingly, Jadeja, Virat, and Rohit have played in all three Champions Trophy finals. The last three that have taken place in 2013, 2017, and 2025 now. I don't know whether the format will survive or not, to be honest. It'll survive till 2027, till Rohit and Kohli are still interested in playing the one-day game. But beyond that, who knows whether the…

[00:04:50] Wait, but 27 is the ODI World Cup. Yeah. So, I'm talking about the ODI format itself. You're talking about the format in general. I was just talking about… Because the Champions Trophy is not like you. You know that the World Cup comes around every four years. You know that the 2020 World Cup comes around every two years. The Champions Trophy was meant to be every four years. So, obviously, COVID came in the middle. So, 2021 took a hit. 2025, yeah, this has been the revival of the Champions Trophy.

[00:05:19] First time since 2017, where Pakistan beat India at the Oval. In fact, I think this is from that… This sweatshirt is from that tournament. 2017 Champions Trophy. We were at that tournament, DJ, together. Not at the final. But we were at that thing together. It's unbelievable. Yeah. So, I don't know whether it'll survive, man. To be honest, 50 overs. Even today, there were times that the number of… It was great.

[00:05:48] It was a gripping final. A game worthy of a final, right? So, there's… Again, I'm not being critical of the game itself. I think it's our attention spans which have gotten much shorter. Yeah. Our kind of… We're probably much more finely tuned to P20. And then, obviously, the test game itself comes with, like, all the other bells and whistles that attaches to that game and the narrative and the strategy and all that stuff. Whereas, the 50-over game is stuck in the middle of those two things.

[00:06:17] India winning 50-over tournaments is good for the format, is what I would say. Yeah. So, who knows? It might survive 2029 or maybe India is going to hold this in perpetuity. Yeah. Well said. Either way, let's talk about this tournament, right? I'm going to come and talk about the final. But since we last got together, two semifinals. DJ, there was a little bit of the farce as we talked about it. And we're going to come back and talk more about this whole Dubai thing because the Aussies haven't held back.

[00:06:44] By the way, Mitch Santner, in the nicest, most Kiwi way possible, I don't know if you caught this, in the post-game conference said something like, I'm proud of the boys, you know, whatever, acclimatizing to delivering against very different conditions. And by the way, we had really different conditions in every match we played. You know, which to me sounded like the subtle dig at how India played every match in the same venue. But we'll come back to that. DJ, Australia in a semifinal.

[00:07:14] Travis Head, Steve Smith, Marnas Labushin, Alex Carey, Glenn Maxwell. We have some PTSD about playing the Aussies in big ICC tournaments. And yet, this team showed up. Australia made 264. Brilliant knock by Carey. Great knock by Smith to anchor the innings. But it was Virat Kohli at the end of the day, again, in a chase, who anchored it. And there's something about the impatience we all have for the singles and the boring middle overs and all that.

[00:07:42] But when Virat is out there rotating the strike, I think he only had five boundaries in his knock of 84. So it was all ones and twos. But just gets it done. How great was it to put to bed a semifinal? And by the way, we didn't make it easy. Harzik had to come at the end and hit some big shots to get us there. But that semifinal gave us hope that we can do this, right? Against whether it was South Africa or New Zealand we were going to face. At that point, you believed this can happen? Yeah. I mean, India were clinical.

[00:08:12] They'd won all the games in the group stage, even the games that they didn't need to win playing. And the point of difference was kind of Chakra, who came in and started taking all these wickets. And I think when we spoke last week, I said, I'm terrified by one guy and he's Travis Head. Travis Head had never played a ball from Varun Chakravarty in the international game. First ball, he bowls to him. Knocks one straight down to Shubman Gill at long on. Or long off, maybe. End of story. That, for me, was the game right there.

[00:08:42] It didn't matter what Steve Smith did. Yes, he's tormented India in the past. Manas. A bit of carry. That was all fine. But without the bowling firepower that they had in the World Cup, Australia were going to struggle to contain that Indian batting lineup. And again, sweet redemption for November 2023. It just goes to show, right? Of course, there are no prizes for coming second and all that. But this is a damn good team.

[00:09:09] We're a really good 50-over team. Having won, what, 11? 11 games or 10 games on the trot? Something like that. In the last tournament. Another, what, six or seven now? Yeah. That's pretty special. Sorry, it can't be six. It was three plus five. Yeah. That's actually not a lot of games to win to win a trophy. So maybe this is the easiest trophy to win. I mean, it arguably is, right? Eight teams, two groups. You still, India still did it undefeated.

[00:09:38] Yes, you could argue they played in one ground. And yes, it wasn't the most competitive format and all that. But you still have to get out there and put runs on the board or take 10 wickets or chase down big totals. And India did it repeatedly. Can I ask you one question, though? Yeah. Should it go back to being that knockout format that it was before it became the champion trophy? Because it was the ICC knockouts. Yeah. Listen, for me... So you'd have to, by definition, win it undefeated. That would be quite cool. For me, I think you just... You and I could be sitting here saying, if it's a knockout, you need probably at least

[00:10:08] 32 teams, right? So 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, which means five wins to get there. If you're playing 32 teams, the likes of some associates, I mean, I was smaller teams all make it in. And then you and I are sitting there watching India play against Papua New Guinea in the first round and win, you know, get them 37 all out and win it in three over. And we're going to say, what is this? This is a waste of time. I'm not aware of that. And I sound like... I sound whatever the opposite of humble is. I sound incredibly... I sound like I have a lot of hubris.

[00:10:36] But my point is, something needs to be different. You can't have two groups, four matches, quarter, semifinals, final. There's nothing unique about the Champions Trophy anymore. So I would love something like a knockout or like a bracket style. Every... You know, you have seedings, you have one through 32, and then you work your way down. Something like that, I think would be really fun. Yeah. And of course, Virat has won four of these now, four ICC trophies. Yeah. And to put that into context, Sachin won one. Yeah. Wow. That's insane.

[00:11:06] Yeah, that is true. For me, that's an insane... That is. That's an insane step. That is an insane step. All right, DJ. So semifinal happened. And I want to make sure we talk about this final. Second semifinal, South Africa, New Zealand. I mean, it was a magnificent batting performance. I was nervous when I saw that. Ratchin comes out. Now, obviously, they were playing in Lahore, different conditions to the way. But Ratchin comes out. Williamson comes out, makes blistering centuries. And then you have Mitchell and Phillips make 49 each, both almost making half centuries. But just a phenomenal 362.

[00:11:35] I mean, it was a good chase in the end. A strange kind of 67-ball century from David Miller, where he scored most of those runs after the game was out of reach. Fantasy points. Like, he put his hands up in the end. What happened to your fantasy league? Did he score points for Varun or you? Since you were the only two participants. I'm saving my fantasy interest for that. I started, I created a team. But anyway, DJ, well-deserved by New Zealand to make the finals, right? They played great all through.

[00:12:04] I think they were also undefeated till the finals, if I'm not mistaken. No, they lost to India. Yeah, sorry. Other than the eventual winners, right? They beat everybody else. So from their lens, they've seen... Yeah, I mean, they lost two games and they lost two games to India. Yeah. Clearly the second best team, you could argue. But a very, very, very emphatic win. Sorry, South Africa had not lost a game until that point. But an emphatic win against the South Africans. At this point, are you nervous?

[00:12:32] Are you nervous New Zealand, the big game, ICC New Zealand is going to show up? The nice guys of world cricket and all that fun stuff? I am. But that's my conditioning as an Indian cricket fan. Yeah. And so everything started to go a little bit pear-shaped. The last Champions Trophy final. Bumra bowled that no ball to Fakar Zaman. We dropped catches. It was... Everything within Indian cricket fans started to go a little bit pear-shaped.

[00:12:58] And it's probably fair to say that we weren't the top team in 2015. We were not favourites to win in 2015. Yeah. The World Cup. But we should have won the... I mean, the way we played the Champions Trophy 2017, we should probably have won that tournament. And then 2019 happened when New Zealand went to medal and kick us out. 2021 happened. New Zealand beat us in the World Test Championship final. World Cups came and went.

[00:13:28] We lost in the 22... 21 T20 World Cup. 22 T20 World Cup. Yeah, it was... It was not looking good. And I mean, what I think you said is Trent Bolt going to come out of retirement and have us 5 for 3. You know what? For a moment, you gave me a bit of panic attack. Just that Trent Bolt curving the ball back into Rohit Sharma first up. Oh, man. The visuals are burned into our brains. Yeah. 5 for 3.

[00:13:57] The 28 national, 5 for 3. Just burned it. Oh, oh, oh. But... I don't know why it's still like... Because maybe that felt like that was the chance, right? The Virat Kohli era. But redemption for Virat. Four ICC trophies. Still not an IPL, but four ICC trophies. He would take that in a heartbeat. Let's talk about the final. So New Zealand... I made the joke that New Zealand may have come second in the tournament, but they racked up a lot more air miles than Team India because of all the shuttling to and from Dubai.

[00:14:27] They come back to Dubai. India plays unchanged. Yes, Varun came in mid-tournament, obviously, for Harshit. But we have a tendency to chop and change a lot. Obviously, easier not to when you're winning. But big, big blow for New Zealand in Matt Henry missing out. And I don't know if you saw, but when he took a catch in the previous game, hurt his shoulder, tried. I think they really tried to get him in. But some new guy named Nathan Smith came in. I mean, he's played six or seven odd years before. But New Zealand goes out to bat first.

[00:14:59] DJ, 251 on the board. Arguably felt a little short, but from where they were at one point, right? 108 for 4, 165 for 5. Varun takes a great early wicket as well. Well, Kuldeep picks up two magnificent ones, by the way, within back-to-back overs. But 251, slightly subpar and still on a tough spinning wicket under the pressure of a final. You think there's a game in it. And it turned out to be a game in it.

[00:15:27] But yeah, what were you feeling at 251? How did you rate New Zealand's first things? And tell me about India's bowling performance. Yeah, so let's talk through some of those things. New Zealand got off to a great start. Rachin doing his thing. Going at kind of six, seven runs and over in the first 10. And then Varun came in. We dropped a bunch of catches. Ayer dropped one. Gail dropped one. Rohit dropped one. Shamit dropped one right up front.

[00:15:58] And then Varun gets the breakthrough. And that was... I think he got Will Young out. LBW with a quicker slider. And then for me, the best ball of the tournament was the Kuldeep Yadav. The first ball of his spell. To the inform batter who, since one, has one player of the tournament. I think he was the highest run scorer in the tournament, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, yeah. He was. He was. And just the four innings he played. So anyway. Now go ahead.

[00:16:26] And I think he got 500 in the last ICC trophy he played. Just a big game player. Yeah. And Kuldeep comes in. It's the first ball of his spell. Lands the perfect googly, which Rajin has no clue about. Misses it completely and gets bowled through the gate. And if that was not enough, like that for me was like champagne moment. And then he bowls this beautiful kind of dipping, wrist pinning delivery to Kane. And Kane can't get to it.

[00:16:55] And Kane Williamson is like, he's the guy that absorbs all the pressure, right? For New Zealand. And he's the rock of that lineup. And Kuldeep gets him out early. It's like he's 10-11 runs into his innings. And that was huge. To have them three down then. And then came the struggle. I think there was a period of real struggle with Mitchell and Latham. Jadeja struck, got Latham. All of that happened. And then I actually thought at the halfway mark, New Zealand had just gotten away at the end with the brace well.

[00:17:25] Yeah. The 50, I think he got smacking it all over the park. From an India point of view, I thought 220 was on the cards, to be honest. Yeah. I thought 220, 225 would have been the right score. And I would have been quite comfortable with India chasing that. The moment it edged over that kind of 240 mark, which I think is what New Zealand scored in that fateful semifinal, right? 241, I think, if I'm not wrong.

[00:17:54] Man, the moment they went over that, I was like, this is going to be a hard chase. And then I looked at their lineup and I said, okay, they haven't really got any spinners other than maybe Santner. I said, okay, but these guys, they can probably bowl a little. Phillips can bowl a little bit. Rachin can bowl a little bit. Bracewell, after he got a 50, he's an off spinner. So they were kind of decent spinners, serviceable, other than Santner. And Santner was the danger man. He was the guy that they strike.

[00:18:24] All right. So yeah, I was nervous at the halfway mark. Yeah, that's a good point for us to take a quick break. 252 to win the Champions Trophy. The 35-minute break during which I took a nap, by the way, because my day started at 3, 4 in the morning, thanks to Daylight Savings. But I had to take a power 35-minute nap between innings. We will come back, talk about the chase, and then talk about the tournament as a whole. Don't go anywhere. We will be right back.

[00:18:57] Welcome back to the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast. Hey, we're live on YouTube as we record this. So hopefully it's holding up okay. But if you are on live, send us a message in the chat. Or if you're not, if you're catching up later, like this episode, subscribe to the podcast, and leave us a comment. We always love to hear. DJ, Skipper walks out for the chase. And he is a man on a mission. And listen, I will tell you, during the start of that, watching him hit was awesome. Always is.

[00:19:25] He hit a 28-28 odd in the semifinal also. But he's a clean striker for the ball. Over time, you realized how brilliant that knock was. Because you realize, and similar with Bracewell, by the way, you realized how much the pitch was doing, how difficult it was. Yes, on a wicket where the quicks did poorly across basically all of everybody. Then the spinners were dominating. Rohit got to bat against mostly pace. But man, 76 off of 83 balls.

[00:19:52] Just tell me a little bit about that knock, that partnership. I mean, 100 for zero. And by the way, full points to New Zealand for bouncing back from there. Because at 100 for zero, and I think it was 17-ish overs, the game feels like it could be done. And some of us as India fans were already celebrating. Should have been done. But you can never say never, right? With the New Zealand team. And it's a never-say-die attitude that these guys have. So, taking a question in turn.

[00:20:18] Rohit Sharma, second ball, deposits it into the crowd for six of Jameson. Incredible shot. And there's a DK, there's a Dinesh Karthik interview afterwards, which I think is probably the most telling out of all of these. Which is, Rohit Sharma in 2019 got 500s. We didn't win that. He took over as captain. DK, remember, was part of the 2022 World Cup campaign. DK said that's where it all changed.

[00:20:47] Because we played in one way in the league stages. And then we played in a totally different way in the semi-final when the pressure was on. And we cracked under that pressure. So, Rohit has said, I will take the bull by the horns and I will play in this way. Yeah, Rohit has said, yeah, the management supported him all. But DK is quite clear that this was a Rohit thing. And from 2022, you can see the difference in the guy who's got the highest ever one-day score, 264. He's got three double hundreds.

[00:21:16] He's got five hundreds in one of the World Cups 2019. He's become a six-hitter guy that takes on the bowling. And in the analysis, when you look how close it got to in terms of number of balls left, and there was a bit of a moment where it felt like we weren't going to have sufficient overs left. The acceleration that Rohit took, the fact that he went after the new ball, went after the seamers, it was an inflection point in that game.

[00:21:44] Yeah, let me just back up quickly what you were saying with statistics. Rohit made his debut in 2007. From 2007 to 2021, his, and the game has evolved in all that caveats, but from 07 to 21, as an ODI cricketer, his strike rates, 82, 72, 65, 86, 66, 82, 90, started picking up a little. 94, 95, 95, 99, 100, 89, 91. 2022, 114. 2023, 117. 2024, 141.

[00:22:14] 25, 25, 28, 108. Like, that is a very clear inflection point. Like, the data shows you this big jump starting in 22 with strike rate, and his averages stayed pretty good. It slowed a little versus 2017 through 2019 when it just felt like he was averaging 70 plus. It slowed a little. But made the choice and backed himself to do it. And it is what made the difference in this game, period.

[00:22:39] Because as you saw, Virat, by the way, played a bad shot to Michael. I think it was Michael Bracewell's first ball. It was. And it was like Bracewell was coming in on the 20th over, and it was like New Zealand had literally waited to bring their off spinner on when Virat Kohli came into bat. It was a plan. The plan was so transparent. It was amazing. Like, Kohli was like, no, I can't play leg spins. I'm going to focus on that. And then there's like... I mean, Bracewell is not...

[00:23:08] He's not Muralitharan or Sakleen Mushtaq, man. Like, he's a guy who just rolled it out of the side of the hand. It's not going to be hard. And Kohli just misses a straight one. And then, look, shop... It was... Yeah, it was not good. It was not a good one. Yeah, I mean, listen. But Kohli did his job this tournament, right? I actually thought he had a shot at player of the series, but Rajin won it full points to him. He played... He had an amazing tournament. But weirdly, the message I sent Varun actually,

[00:23:36] had one-off one or one-off two when he got out. He said, okay, good. At least Kohli is not retiring. Because you know... He made a century. He made an 84. They were never going to retire. But even if he was thinking about it for one second, when he got out for one in a final, it was done. Which we now know is not happening. And can I just add to that as well? While we're on the retirement point? Please. I don't think they're going to retire if India make the next World Championship Championship final.

[00:24:05] So that'll be in the summer of 2027. So that will be the Rohit and Kohli swan song. So I think for sure that's the lead. And that's also the... If India make the final, that is. Where is the 2027 World Cup? South Africa. And you're going to take Rohit and Kohli to South Africa to play. Yeah. But it's October, November of 2027. Is it? I thought it's February. No, it's October, November. I thought it's March. Is it not? I'm just double-checking.

[00:24:33] But I'm pretty sure it seems to say it's... Because Rohit is... Rohit turns 40 in March, I think. Yeah. So I think when I looked this up, maybe I'm wrong. I looked this up, I thought it was just before it turned 40. Let us know in the comments if you know it. But I think it might be in the fall in 2027. Which is going to be... Yeah. Scheduled for October, November, according to CricketFall. So that's going to be really interesting. Like that'll be... For sure, that'll be the send-off for swan song.

[00:25:00] So then, I mean, World Test Championship will be before that in the summer, right? Retire from tests at the end of the World Test Championship cycle. Retire from ODIs and then sail off into the sunset. DJ, I want to make sure we take a minute to talk about what happened next, right? So, Bharat gets out at 106 foot 2. Rohit goes out shortly after. That's a very testing period, by the way. Very, very testing. Rohit's shot was awful. Like, it was horrendous. Rohit's shot was absolutely... I mean, no shot. He just...

[00:25:30] There was multiple times he danced down the track and either just about made contact or like hit it straight back to the bowl or something. And then just this huge swing. And it was a swipe. It was like... It was like a club level shot. Yeah, but full credit to... I mean, you got 30 overs of brilliance from Santana, Bracewell and Ravindra. You mentioned Santana was the threat. Ravindra and Bracewell were absolutely excellent too. Glenn Phillips also bowled five. But those 30 overs were incredibly tight. But... So, this is what I want to talk about. We will talk about Kohli.

[00:26:00] We'll talk about Rohit's man of the match, etc. Shreyas Iyer made 48. And Akshar backed him pretty well. Akshar's been decent at five. But I want to talk Shreyas and I want to talk Rahul. Shreyas Iyer in this series made 48 in this game. 45 against Australia. 79 against New Zealand the last time. 56 against Pakistan. 15 against Bangladesh. Man, you realize what an impact Shreyas had in this series. And I'm just trying to pull up the stats as we talk.

[00:26:27] India's top run scorer with 243. Right? Even KL Rahul who didn't even bat to one of the games made 140 in the series. Rahul made 34 of 33. That is what made the difference. Right? Yes. Yes, Rohit and Kohli. And so as I think about summarizing India's performance. The reason this felt like such a holistic team performance is because everybody showed up. Right? Any thoughts on Shreyas and Rahul and that importance of numbers 456?

[00:26:57] So, we've won tournaments when our middle order is performed. Right? Varun Bull, if he was on the show, he would have definitely told you that. Because Yivraj, Dhoni were the engine of the 2011 World Cup win. Similarly, there was a pretty solid Reyna-Dhoni nexus going on in 2013. And kind of other middle order is where it's at when you're trying to win multi-nation tournaments. Ayer, I felt, actually brought quite a lot of pressure with him.

[00:27:28] He got stuck a little bit today. It's probably fair to say that. I think everybody got stuck a little though, right? They did. But like Rohit totally lost any kind of rhythm once. Fair. That's a good point. Hit a lot of... There were a few maidens. He hit a lot of balls to fielders. He redeemed himself, I think, with a few hits. But there were some pretty squeaky moments.

[00:27:53] There was one kind of catch on the boundary, which he stepped on the mid-wicket boundary. There was one catch that went down on Jameson, I think, put him down at long on, which was a pretty straightforward catch. Yeah. Off Glenn Phillips, ironically. And we've not actually talked about what brought about all of this at 100 plus for no loss, which was the absolutely insane. Like, I don't think I've actually seen a better catch.

[00:28:21] Yeah, they showed the reaction time was 0.7 seconds or something. We saw the Kohli catch early in the tournament, right? I thought that was good. Yeah. But you've seen John T. do that kind of thing, who's still diving around at age 55 in the Legends League. Did you see that in the Legends, by the way? Yeah, ridiculous. Because they made that unbelievable stop and then the commentators, as it panned out, were like, what a piece of it. And it panned out. And I was like, oh, of course, it's John T. Who else could it possibly have been?

[00:28:46] But if possible, like, Glenn Phillips is almost taking that John T. level fielding to the next plane. And I mean, he takes that, like, Ben Stokes catch almost every game. He takes one of these almost every game. He's had five catches this evening. Of which three have been blinders. Like, the Rizwan catch, the Kohli catch. But today's catch, I think, was actually the best of the lot. It was unbelievable.

[00:29:14] And for that catch then, of Shreya Seher to go down off his bowling, it must have really gutted him. Because it was straight in. Jameson has hands like literal buckets, man. Like, how he missed that, I have no idea. And he nearly dropped another one later, the Pandya catch as well. Yeah, it was a weird ball off his own bowling. Yeah. Phenomenal catch by Glenn Phillips. By the way, they should have stared on TV, at least on the feed I had, that said, this is where the data is getting a bit out of control for me. But most number of touches by a fielder in the tournament. Did you see this one?

[00:29:44] Glenn Phillips had the third most touches by a fielder. Jadeja had the second. By a long distance, by the way, number one, Virat Kohli. And that's because for so long in the middle of it, he's in every game. He stands at mid-wicket. And there's nobody left to read. And they just kept nudging it for no run to Virat. But anyway, I digress. Just, I mean, the thing I'm most excited about is we've had this show for seven years. And I should have opened with that, by the way. Last week was the seventh anniversary of the Edges and Sledges Creed podcast.

[00:30:13] So happy anniversary to you, DJ, and to all of our listeners. Stuck with us. Number seven. Number seven. It's a big one. All right, what are we at? 30 minutes before you brought up, Thadi. But I think you brought up before when you were talking about it. But it's fair. It's the week in which Rohit is starting to join MS in the ICC trophy holder cabinet. Anyway. I forgot what I was going to say. Oh, yeah.

[00:30:41] We spent so many of the first three or four years talking about what is going to happen at the ODI number four. For the ODI number four slot. Do you remember this? Raiudu came, Vijay Shankar came in one. I am just, I'm a fan of Shreyas Ayer. You and those who've listened to this show for a while know that. But man, it was good to see him just play those knocks. Yes. Even when he struggled, he didn't give away his wicket too cheaply. Yes, he got lucky. But you can't, it's not like that. You don't blame him for being lucky. That's how it goes. He got lucky. But I was just really refreshed to see that.

[00:31:10] And by the way, for as harsh as we are to KL Rahul, 42 not out against Australia, 34 not out against New Zealand, 41 not out against Bangladesh. He's finishing games. He's playing a role that we didn't, I didn't expect him to play, to be honest. And in the five matches, he got dismissed once. He didn't bat once. So he batted four times. Only got out once against New Zealand. I mean, I'm, it was just nice. It's very easy to say this when the team wins the tournament.

[00:31:39] But it was nice to see that top six come together. And oh, by the way, seven is Hardik, eight is Jadeja. And Rohit talked about that. He said, I wanted the batting played so that I could play the role. Well, I've been playing up front because it'll work sometimes. It won't work sometimes. I don't think I actually had a question for you, but I was just really excited about that four or five minutes. No, the Shreyas-Rahul nexus, let's call it. Yeah. You need that in the middle. You need that middle over. You need guys who can play spin as well as smack the base around, right?

[00:32:09] And you saw that. When the, we were, India needed more than a run of ball at some point. And the moment it went past that, you could see Rahul like lacing the drives through the cover region. You could see him smacking the ball straight down the ground of Ravindra. Just sweet swing of the bat. Ravi Shastri, not Ravi Shastri. Yeah, Ravi Shastri was on comms at the end.

[00:32:35] And I was like, if Rahul finishes this with a six, that'll be like full circle. Ravi Shastri is still on comms and we could keep our batter, finishes it off in style. Of course, Rahul didn't get that option. But you know, he was also batting. Sorry, what? He did finish it off with a four. Yeah. MS's protege. I mean, Varun was dreaming about Jaleja hitting a boundary and running into MS's arms and announcing his retirement. I don't know if Dhoni was at the game. I don't remember seeing.

[00:33:02] But man, like, and Jaleja, let's quickly talk Jaleja, right? Just this constant clutch kind of, at one point we said he walks into every format. He's one of the first names on the team sheet for every format. They did ask him explicitly about what does this mean for the rest of his career? And he said, I'm loving playing. I'm enjoying it. So at no point did he signal retirement from this format either. Remember, all three, right?

[00:33:28] Rohit Kohli and Jaleja retired from T20 internationals when they lifted the World Cup. But the Champions Trophy is not a World Cup. So maybe they all want two and a half more years. But how nice was it and special to see Jaleja hit those winning runs coming in at number eight? It was great. It was really quite nice. And I did feel a little bit for Pandya because Pandya did do a bit. We needed that 18 of 18 at that point. He played a slightly strange shot to get out, but... He got it. It was a good ball.

[00:33:57] It was a good bounce from Jameson. Yes, he probably should have just been more patient. But yeah. I was kind of hoping for a bit of a Pandya being there at the end. Just a bit more redemption for a guy who's had a bit of a tough last 12-18 months, right? But he'll just shrug it off. He smacked one into the second tier. That was great to watch. Amazing. And I mean, yeah, Jaleja just came in clinically. What was great to see was that Jaleja is still one of the fastest runners between the wickets.

[00:34:26] And he just camped on those two. And if he'd been out there earlier, I think the New Zealand guys would have found it hard to contain those two. Like if him and Virat were batting together, for example, it'd be like the old MS-Virat type of combination where they would just run twos every time they touched the ball. So that's kind of what Jaleja was doing. It was just really nice. Akshar actually was awful at running between the wickets. No, Akshar and Shreyas as well.

[00:34:51] I mean, there was one point at which I think the one that went for six, which was eventually given for six, they only ran one. One. And that's like such poor game awareness. And there was Rahul nearly got run out twice by Hartig. It was all like, it was all a bit frantic towards the end. But listen, all is well that ends well. Rohit Sharma has got two trophies now in nine months. Phenomenal. Trophy is a trophy.

[00:35:19] Huge congratulations to you, TJ, to everybody who's an India fan, of course, to Rohit and the boys. As we try to bring this to a wrap, and next week will probably be our big, before you know it, by the way, I think we're 12 days from the IPL. Next week will be our big IPL preview. Let's talk quickly about kind of your biggest highlights. As you look back at this tournament from a Team India perspective, I'm not going to talk about, yes, they got to play in one ground. And all of that is true.

[00:35:45] But all of that is the cards these 11 guys on the field are dealt. Yeah. But I mean, also about that, we should also be clear. Yeah. New Zealand played at this ground twice. Yeah. So it's okay. It's fine. And everybody knew this was the case that it was not like, it's not like Rohit Sharma said, I don't want to play elsewhere. Yeah. So. That's what I'm saying. For the players. It's not like they don't have the personnel to do it. Like, it's a bit, it's a bit annoying to have that conversation over and over again.

[00:36:15] It is something that's outside the players' hands. But if you go watch most of our counterparts who are not India fans, all the other podcasts, everybody's talking about a rigged tournament, unfair tournament, this, that. And listen, when you, when you are good and dominating, that happens. It's fine. I'm not arguing that there's probably a little bit of a, an advantage of staying in the same hotel and playing at the same ground and all that. You still have to go out there and put up winning performances day after day. And the India players didn't ask for this. It is a function of.

[00:36:44] But also India had the worst. So, so for example, I'm just going to like talk. To this because India had the worst schedule of all the teams in the, in the one day world cup. They played at 10 different grounds. Yep. They traveled the most. Nobody talked about that. They were unbeaten till the final. No one talks about that. Yep. Yeah. I mean, come on. This is all, this is all stupid stuff. Like I'm telling you. Cricket is played on the pitch. Go back. Let's just keep it on that. And you can only beat what you're given.

[00:37:11] You can only beat what you presented with what you're given to, given to do right on the day. No, couldn't agree. This is all like, this is. Yeah. There was a bit from David Miller as well. It was not ideal. It was up and down. There's a lot of like frequent flyer jokes, which is fine. But like, it's not like you're traveling around the world. It's not like you're going to Australia and back, right? Like you're going a few hours. It's okay. It's like playing the IPL. Like I said, the Aussies have been complaining.

[00:37:36] Mitchell Sandler, again, New Zealand, nice guys made a point in his final press conference to say, we adapted as quickly as we can to each service. We played on different wickets throughout. That's, he didn't say anything about India, but that seems like a dig to me. So anyway, all that to say, as India would lift the trophy, what are the things you're most, most excited about going back? Of course, Virat back into form. Century, what did he hit? Number 52? Was it 52, 51? 51, I think. 51.

[00:38:05] 84 against Australia, by the way. Probably could have nerdled his way to another century, but played the team game. Didn't go for that milestone. Obviously, Rohit and his leadership. Four spinners. What are your biggest highlights you're going to take away from a big tournament? So I think one of the biggest highlights which flew under the radar, of course, all of those, there's a Rohit captaincy. There's him using those four spinners really well in the final.

[00:38:33] Virat, KL, Shreyas, Kuldeep with the magic ball. But the guy that actually made the massive difference was Varun Chakravarty. Yeah, I knew you were going to say that. Humongous. Like, what a blinding selection for a guy who's not in the squad. Yeah. Didn't play the first two games. Comes in, picks up wickets against New Zealand in that third game. Yeah, he takes a five-fuck. Picks up wickets against New Zealand in the third game. Totally unassuming.

[00:39:01] Like, again, got the breakthrough this morning. Got the breakthrough today against New Zealand. He's not an ODI bowler really. Like, we've only seen him in the T20 game, right? Like, where there's four overs, there's more mystery involved. He showed that he could last a 10-over span. And unbelievable variation. Like, every time India needed a wicket, they went to him and he delivered. And I mean, today as well, Glenn Phillips started to look a bit dangerous. Again, who gets him up?

[00:39:30] Varun comes in, puts one through the gate. And look, yeah, conditions would have helped. But India did not have the better of the spinning conditions in three out of the five games. Or maybe even four out of the five games. Because the balls actually managed to spin more in the second half of the game. And India inevitably ended up chasing. So, yeah. I don't buy the whole conditions thing. Yeah, India won without Bumrah as well. Yeah.

[00:40:01] Yeah. It was, I think, the highlight for me. I don't know whether he's going to do anything more in his career. But Varun Chakravarti is an ICC trophy winner. Where he was, kind of four years ago. Similar venue where he played the 2020 World Cup. And went wickedless. I mean, that is a redemption arc in itself, right? Fantastic. Yeah. I mean, listen, he missed the first two games and became the second highest wicket taker in the series. Only behind Matt Henry, right?

[00:40:30] I mean, that is really something. I would also spare a thought, by the way, for nine, also tied on nine wickets in the series. Mohamed Shami had a tough last couple of games as the spinning surfaces became more dominant. And each team was getting 35 overs or so of spin. But great to see him back in a world where you were missing Bumrah and playing one quick. I don't think Siraj could have done it. I don't even know if Arshadip could have done it. I don't know if Arshad could have done it. But Shami had the experience and just the chops to do it. By the way...

[00:41:00] And then the second highlight for me was... Sorry, you were saying? No, no. Go ahead. I was saying that the guys who were wearing the Maasai clothing in the crowd. Because I didn't understand what... I thought you were going to talk about Roger Biddy struggling to put on white jackets on each of the players. By the way, how did they have perfectly fit white jackets made for each of the players? Rigged. It was rigged. That's why. And Rishabh looked the most happy. Didn't do anything this whole tournament. Went up, took his white jacket with his medal on. Arshadip went up, took...

[00:41:29] I mean, listen, they're in the squad. I joke, fully deserved, but it was kind of entertaining to see. DJ, as we wrap this up for Team India's ODI future, as we pivot and now only focus on IPL, and we won't think about this for a while. What do you do differently from here? Do you change anything? Obviously, as you travel to the South Africans and start planning for different wickets, you need more depth and strength of quicks. You're not going to be able to rely on Varun, Kuldeep, Jadeja, and Akshar in South Africa. Nitish Reddy probably becomes a part of the recipe ongoing.

[00:41:59] You probably need to think through the role of a Jaswal in the future because it's tough to have talent like him and just leave him out on the sidelines. But what do you do if you're Gambhir right now, after you've had a great night of partying and celebrating, which you've earned? Yeah, you've got to have forces for courses, right? You're going to have someone who can get your runs in those conditions, someone who can get your wickets in those conditions. So, I mean, for me, you can't play four spinners. You'll have to think about the Nitish Reddies.

[00:42:27] Hardik will become an even more pivotal part of this team. And yes, we should also mention he was pivotal in this campaign, not just with the bat, but with the ball, playing that. Opening the bowling. Opening the bowling, right? Yeah. Yeah, on those tracks. I think you'll have to look at your Rohit, I think, will probably try and stick around.

[00:42:51] Gil, all of the others are pretty, I mean, there's probably one spot there somewhere, somebody who falls out of form in the next two, two and a half years. And there are lots of contenders for that spot. There's someone like an Abhishek Sharma, there's Yasha Swijeswal. We'll end up conflating formats, as we always do, where someone who scored runs in test matches in South Africa will become a South African specialist.

[00:43:18] I'd back Yasha Swijeswal to be playing that tournament just because of his game. I mean, he scored a lot of runs in Australia, right? So, bounce and pace doesn't faze him. But bowling will be where we need to focus because we need a couple of very decent bowling all-rounders, like we had Akshar and Jadeja here. I think only one of them has enough space for them to play. And it depends on who's fit at that point in time and who's in form.

[00:43:49] I'd still back Jadeja to be going. Yeah. But who knows? Akshar might surprise us all. Yeah, we're going to have to figure it out. Akshar played a great… He did? He played a great role as well in this tournament, by the way. Yeah, we're going to have to figure out the number five slot. We're going to have to figure out the lefty-righty balance. Lots. But today, DJ, I think we did this right after the T20 win tour. We're like, okay, what happens in the post-Rohit Kohli world? But today, we should actually take the pause, celebrate. Phenomenal trophy. Lovely to win an ICC trophy, even if it's the smallest one of them.

[00:44:17] And then we get back at it with the IPL coming soon. DJ, thank you for joining me. This has been fun. It's late for you now. You should go get some sleep. Thank you, everybody, for joining. Thank you for listening. Congratulations again to our India fans, who I think are most of our listeners, for a phenomenal couple of weeks. We get 10 days off. WPL gets into the playoffs in the final stages doing that, which is going to be awesome. And then we're back at it with the IPL. DJ, thanks for joining me.

[00:44:47] Excited for IPL mode. We'll see you next time. This is the Edges and Sledges Cricket Podcast, signing off.