CHENNAI: At one point during the New Zealand innings — after 37 overs — in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final, the scorecard at the Dubai International Stadium read 161/4. It might seem below par, but this is the slow Dubai surface and Glenn Phillips had started counter-attacking, getting the Black Caps' innings back on track with Daryl Mitchell at the other end.
India needed a wicket, and they needed it sooner than later. That is when captain Rohit Sharma turned to Varun Chakravarthy for his third spell. To an extent, it was a move made out of necessity rather than just a tactic. The mystery spinner, despite giving the early breakthrough in the powerplay, hadn't been able to make any further inroads. He had bowled seven overs, giving away 1/33, and had made Mitchell look clueless.
That is not just why, Rohit turned to Varun. He did so because spin was the way to go. India have stuck to that template through the tournament and Sunday was not going to be any different. In fact, it has been the trend of the tournament in itself. And it worked. Varun cleaned up Phillips, gave India the control they needed before finishing with 2/45. And it is not just him, the four spinners India fielded — Ravindra Jadeja (1/30), Axar Patel (0/29) and Kuldeep Yadav (2/40) — had ensured they just gave away 144 runs in 38 overs while accounting for five of the seven (one run out) wickets that fell during the New Zealand innings.
Wickets. That is what spinners brought to the table in this Champions Trophy. Till the end of the first innings during the final on Sunday, they took 73 wickets in 13 matches cumulatively across teams. You break it down, it comes to approximately 5.6 scalps per match for spinners. Barring the 2011 Men's ODI World Cup — a 49-match tournament played across India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh — no other 50-over men's ICC event has seen spinners play such a massive role. In the 2011 ODI WC, spinners accounted for almost six wickets per match (5.91). However, in 2011, the rules of the format were very different. Only one new ball was used, the powerplay rules were different and part-time spinners had a significant role to play. Case in point was India who used Yuvraj Singh as their fifth bowler for the better part of the tournament.
The last time a Champions Trophy saw spinners play a significant role was in the inaugural edition — Wills International Cup (1998/99) — was 27 years ago, when the tournament was played in Bangladesh. This Champions Trophy, in many ways, is peculiar for that reason. For starters, the hybrid model in which the tournament is played meant Dubai hosted five of the 13 matches (two were abandoned in Pakistan).
And the slowish Dubai pitches came into play. As many as 35 wickets fell to spin (till the first innings of the final) in five matches, with Indian quartet accounting for 26 of them. In contrast, Mohammed Shami has taken only four wickets in as many matches after the fifer against Bangladesh. And that tells a lot about how much pacers have been ineffective in Dubai, especially up front. While some of it has to do with the quality of the bowling in itself, there is no denying that the conditions have been tailor made for spinners. Even in Pakistan, 38 wickets fell to spinners in eight innings. Take a look at the four semifinalists, three of them had quality spinners racking up wickets. Only South Africa relied on their pace trio for wickets.
Which is why, at some level, it comes as no surprise that India have dominated the tournament as they have. Having two frontline spinners and Axar, Jadeja and Washington Sundar as all-rounders is a luxury no other team in the world has. Barring Washington who has not played a game, the rest of them have turned up day in and day out — sometimes despite not being at their best — making an impact. On Sunday, it was Kuldeep who came to the fore, picked up two of the most important New Zealand wickets — Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra — giving India a head start. "It was a good wicket compared to the last one. It was not turning much. I was just trying to stick it in the wicket and wait for the batter to make a mistake," Varun explained in a chat to the official broadcasters during the innings break.
In every global tournament, emerges a singular aspect that defines the direction in which the tournament goes and who dominates the proceedings. Express pace, batting intent, seam movement, innings building and so on. The 2025 ICC Champions Trophy was all about spinners and the quality ones showed why that is the case.
