Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting has highlighted how India’s ‘outstanding’ all-rounders led to their Champions Trophy 2025 success. Ponting feels that the best teams need a mix of youth and experience – a trait that helped India forge an invincible run at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.
The Australian great said that while Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s experience was the backbone of India’s Champions Trophy success, they had superlative support from their all-rounders.
“Their all-rounders right through the tournament were outstanding. (Ravindra) Jadeja, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, were all outstanding,” Ponting said on the latest edition of The ICC Review
“I said at the start of the tournament I thought India would be really hard to beat because of their overall balance and because of that mix of youth and experience, and once again, in a final, the captain stands up and gets the job done for his team,” he added.
Due to three all-rounders starting in their playing XI in all five of their matches at the recently concluded Champions Trophy, India had an incredible batting depth, while also having an array of options to choose with the ball.
“They were a very well balanced side anyway, but because they had so many all-rounders…when you’ve got Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, who they used up the order on a number of occasions for that left-handed option, and with Jadeja there as well, they were a very well balanced team,” Ponting said.
“The only thing you would probably say, they probably looked a little bit light on fast bowling, but as it turned out, they didn’t need that.
That’s where Hardik Pandya’s role becomes really important to be able to bowl with a new ball and get through some overs early to make it a little bit easier for the spinners in the backend of their Powerplay and also through the middle overs where they predominantly bowl and spin pretty much right through the middle of the game,” he added.
The 50-year-old also praised Axar, who was a regular feature of the Indian team coming into bat mainly at No.5.
“Axar Patel is the other one that I think needs a lot of credit for this tournament. I think his bowling was as consistent and rock solid as you’d ever see,” Ponting said.
“Then, just some of those little cameos he played with the bat, coming in earlier and sort of steadying the ship and just making life a little bit easier for the lower order in KL Rahul, Pandya, and Jadeja…I think he deserves a lot of credit for his tournament,” he added.
