'We are in good hands': Virat Kohli lauds next generation Indian players after Champions Trophy win

India won five straight games to claim the Champions Trophy 2025 and in each of those contests, a handful of their star players shone bright. Those contributions led to another title-yielding run in a major ICC event.

And Kohli exemplified that in Dubai, scoring an unbeaten ton against Pakistan and a crucial 84 off 98 balls against Australia to help his side qualify for the decider.

“I think to win titles, which has been missing in the past, the whole team must step up in different games,” Kohli said after India’s memorable Final win against New Zealand.

“If you look at this tournament, over the course of five matches, everyone has put their hand up somewhere or another.

“These are the things, after playing for so long, you look forward to. Being in situations where you are put under pressure, and you walk in, and you put your hand up.”

After Rohit took full advantage of the new ball, it was Shreyas Iyer that came in and played a commanding helping hand, as India went about surging towards the Black Caps’ total of 251.

Shreyas scored a clutch 48 through the middle overs, where runs had proven infamously hard to come by on the Dubai surface, which was enough to set up KL Rahul for finishing duties, with one over to spare.

“That is why we ended up winning this tournament,” Kohli continued.

“People have made such impactful knocks and produced such impactful spells, and it is only a collective effort that can win you a title. I am just so happy we were able to play as a unit and really enjoy ourselves. We have had such an amazing time as a team. It has been an amazing tournament for us.”

Kohli believes the future is bright for India, with the experienced batter now tipping a prolonged period of dominance in the coming years.

"We have the squad that is ready to take on the world in the next eight to 10 years and these guys definitely have the talent to do so," Kohli said.

"They have stepped up already with so many impactful innings that this guy (Gill) has played. Shreyas beautiful, KL (Rahul) has been finishing games and Hardik (Pandya) is a match-winner so we are in good hands."

One of the stories of the Champions Trophy has been India’s mid-campaign inclusion of Varun Chakaravarthy, who took 5/42 against the Kiwis in the group stage, in his first tournament appearance. He would go on to become a crucial member of India’s knockout stage run, finishing with nine wickets from his three games.

Chakaravarthy was a key cog in his side’s spin bowling cartel that, game after game, choked the life out of their opponent’s batting innings.

Kuldeep Yadav was the other slow bowler that reaped rewards, picking up two scalps in the Final, while Ravindra Jadeja’s accurate and quality execution was also on full display, finishing with figures of 1/30 off 10 overs.

New Zealand’s captain Mitchell Santner was full of praise for India’s attack.

“It was good bowling,” Santner said.

“We lost a couple of wickets after the powerplay and then they really got the squeeze on. Credit to the way their spinners bowled, all four of them. They are world class bowlers, and they showed that again today.”

It’s now back-to-back ICC events for India’s Men’s team, after their ICC Men's T20 World Cup success last year. It sets them up to be the team to beat at the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia in 2028.

Indian players spoke about riding the momentum they have created through their dominance in ICC tournaments. And that certainly shone through on the big stage in Dubai.

(With inputs from ICC)