The 2025 Champions Trophy has ended and Team India have won the tournament with flying colors. They were unbeaten throughout the tournament and defeated New Zealand to lift the trophy. At the end of the tournament, however, New Zealand’s Rachin Ravindra was given the Player of the Tournament award and the netizens were divided in opinions regarding the decision.
Rachin Ravindra is definitely one of the rising stars of International Cricket. He scored 263 runs in four innings in the tournament at a stunning average of 68.75 and a strike rate of over 106. His highest came against Bangladesh, where he scored 112 runs. Being an allrounder, he also did pretty will with the ball.
However, Indian legend Ravichandran Ashwin is of the opinion that the award should have gone to Varun Chakravarthy instead. Although the mystery spinner played only 3 matches in the tournament, he turned out to be a game changer for India. In the first match against New Zealand, which was also his first match, he picked up 5 wickets. He then went on to take the big wicket of Travis Head in the semifinal against Australia and picked 2 wickets against New Zealand in the final as well.
“Whatever said and done, the Player of the Tournament, in my view, was Varun Chakaravarthy. He didn’t play the entire tournament. He was such a big difference. If Varun Chakaravarthy wasn’t there, I think this game would have been very different. He brought that X-factor and the novelty factor. If I were the judge, I would have given it to Varun. He was the biggest difference,” Ravichandran Ashwin said.
The fact that Chakravarthy wasn’t even a part of the squad initially makes it even more special. He was added to the squad only after his performance in the England series.
