ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Gautam Gambhir's coaching will lead India to disaster? Shikhar Dhawan reveals

Former India opener Shikhar Dhawan has recently spoken about India's chances for the Champions Trophy 2025. Dhawan feels that India has a good mix of seniors and youngsters in their team and stand a great chance to do well in the tournament.

The ICC Champions Trophy 2025 will be hosted in Pakistan during February-March next year. Having done well in the recent ICC tournaments, Team India has a good chance of doing well in the tournament.

India emerged as the winners of the last ICC tournament - ICC T20 World Cup 2024 - in June 2024. Before that tournament, the Men in Blue also reached the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 where they had a dream run of winning 9 matches on the trot.

Also read: BCCI faces leadership crisis as Jay Shah's successor remains undecided

Shikhar Dhawan rates India's chances for ICC Champions Trophy 2025

During an exclusive chat with TimesofIndia.com, Shikhar Dhawan was asked about India's chances in the Champions Trophy 2025. The former India batter believes that the Men in Blue have a strong chance of winning the tournament.

Shikhar Dhawan reckons that India will be high on confidence after having won the T20 World Cup 2024 and the ODI World Cup 2023. He expressed his confidence in Gautam Gambhir as the team's head coach and feels that the squad has a good mixture of seniors and youngsters.

"We have a strong chance to win the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy. We just won the T20 World Cup (2024)and reached the final of the 2023 ODI World Cup. The team is in excellent form and rhythm," Dhawan said.

"With Gautam (Gambhir) Bhai as coach, and under the guidance of Rahul (Dravid) Bhai, we’ve done really well. We have a great mix of seniors and youngsters, which is crucial," he added.

Shikhar Dhawan himself has excellent numbers in ICC tournaments for ODI cricket. The former left-handed batter has scored 1238 runs in 20 innings at an average of 65.15 and a strike rate of 98.25. He has 6 hundreds to his name.

India's record in recent ICC tournaments

India have a brilliant record in the ICC tournaments over the past few years. The Men in Blue have a fantastic win-loss ratio and have made it to the knockout stages on most occasions.

However, India's long wait for ICC tournaments was over in 2024 when they lifted the T20 World Cup title in Barbados. It was India's first-ever ICC tournament in thirteen years. Before the T20 World Cup 2024, India also reached the final of the ODI World Cup last year, where they were defeated by Australia in the summit clash.

India is likely to send a strong team for the Champions Trophy 2025 with Rohit Sharma most likely to be the captain. The squad is a mix of some of the best talents in the world. They have the experience of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah.

Will India travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy 2025?

While India will be huge favorites going into the Champions Trophy next year, their participation is still in doubt. This is because India's travel to Pakistan has not yet confirmed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India due to security concerns.

The BCCI has clearly stated that the decision to send the Indian cricket team to Pakistan rests in the hands Indian government. The government is yet to finalize its decision on this matter.

India have not traveled to Pakistan since the Asia Cup 2008. Last year, India were scheduled to travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup but they pulled out due to security concerns. As a result, the tournament was held in a hybrid manner with Sri Lanka hosting all of India's matches, along with the final.