Champions Trophy win cements India's status as cricket's best team, an achievement that is sadly tainted

When India recorded a comprehensive seven-wicket win over arch-rivals Pakistan at the 2023 ICC World Cup, then-Pakistan team director Mickey Arthur's comments afterwards were telling.

Pakistan had succumbed in front of a sea of blue in the stands at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, where barely a Pakistan flag could be spotted among approximately 120,000 spectators.

"It didn't seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event," Arthur said, among other things, while analysing his side's loss.

Rahul drags India over the line in absorbing Champions Trophy final Photo shows A group of cricket players celebrate winning the Champions Trophy KL Rahul stood up tall when it mattered most as India avoided dropping a second major tournament final in the space of three years.

Arthur's words seem to ring truer than ever about how world cricket operates after India took out the ICC Champions Trophy, where they somehow had more favourable conditions than the tournament's host nation Pakistan.

Cricket faces a delicate dance when it comes to India. The saying "don't bite the hand that feeds you" is extremely applicable in this scenario.

It is no secret that the money India brings into the game allows it to thrive in the way it currently does. But how do you recognise this without making it seem like every other nation and every series or tournament simply exists to serve India?

This is the question the ICC and its Indian chairman Jay Shah must find the answer to in order to avoid future global tournaments appearing as farcical as this year's Champions Trophy was.

By the time Indian captain Rohit Sharma lifted the Champions Trophy after winning the final, the only sign that Pakistan had been the host nation of the tournament was the logo on the playing tops of both teams. Not a single Pakistani representative was on hand during the presentation ceremony, a fact that left former Pakistan paceman Shoaib Akhtar disappointed.

"It is beyond me. Think about it. The tournament was hosted by us, but there was nobody there. Feeling very down to see that," he said.

Had Pakistan set up the dream final against India, they too would have been forced to travel to Dubai, where India has been based throughout the tournament, to duke it out for the Champions Trophy despite being the host nation.

Farcical might not be strong enough a word to describe this situation, particularly after Pakistan had played all nine of its matches in various venues across India during the 2023 World Cup. Would India have made similar concessions for any other nation when it hosted the World Cup?

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The saddest part of it all is that the scheduling questions have tainted the victory of a side that now has to be considered among some of the greatest white ball teams in the history of the sport.

India's win over New Zealand in the Champions Trophy final now makes it 23 wins out of their last 24 matches at an ICC tournament, a run which spans the 2023 50-over World Cup, last year's T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy. The sole loss came in the 2023 World Cup final, where they where ambushed by Travis Head.

The innings from Head that secured an unlikely triumph for Australia in the 2023 final remains one of the greatest in World Cup history, and that's basically what it takes to beat India these days, at least in the two white ball formats of the game.

India was out to exorcise the demons from the 2023 World Cup final where it was stunned by Australia in front of 130,000 fans in Ahmedabad. (Getty Images: Gareth Copley)

This is a side that can slice you open in a variety of different ways, with both the bat and the ball, and the four-wicket win in the Champions Trophy final over New Zealand was proof of it.

After winning the toss, New Zealand could not have dreamt up a more perfect start as Will Young and Rachin Ravindra raced to 57 without a loss before some spectators could return to their seats after loading up on pre-game snacks.

Seeing another brutal left-hander in Ravindra carving up the Indian attack would have immediately conjured up memories of what Head did in Ahmedabad, for both Indian players and fans alike.

Memories of the 2023 final would have held significant demons for India's two left-arm spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja, who were both wicketless and unable to capitalise on an early advantage their pacemen provided as Head and Marnus Labuschagne won the World Cup for Australia.

This time Kuldeep didn't wait to make his impact on the final. His first ball was as good a googly as you're likely to see and accounted for Ravindra. Six runs later, Kuldeep deceived New Zealand's trump card, Kane Williamson, and India had found its way back into the final.

Kuldeep Yadav's dismissal of Rachin Ravindra brought India well and truly back into the contest after New Zealand's fast start. (Getty Images: Matthew Lewis)

From there, India's four-pronged spin attack featuring the aforementioned duo alongside Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy, one of the finds of the tournament, resembled a boa constrictor, slowly strangling the life out of New Zealand's explosive middle order.

Daryl Mitchell, who has a career strike rate of 95.19, scratched and clawed his way to 63 off a painstaking 101 deliveries before he was caught. Glenn Phillips, who has gone at over a run a ball throughout his career, managed just 34 off 52 deliveries.

A late cameo from Michael Bracewell lifted New Zealand over the 250 mark, but it was always going to be 25 runs short of really making an outstanding Indian batting line-up sweat.

It is a testament to how professional an outfit New Zealand is that this match virtually went the distance after India's openers put on 105 runs for the first wicket.

India was the best team all tournament, but has its achievement overshadowed by ridiculously favourable playing conditions. (Getty Images via ICC: Alex Davidson )

There was a brief stutter when Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli all fell in a mini-collapse which saw India lose 3-17 in the space of eight overs, but ultimately the best team in the world had too many weapons.

One of the factors making this Indian team special is the presence of three genuinely excellent all-rounders in Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Jadeja. The trio allows India to not only roll out six quality bowlers but also bat deep. Most teams have to sacrifice batting depth for bowling depth or vice versa. India has the luxury of having depth in both departments, and both were necessary to win this final.

The Champions Trophy win is the crowning achievement for a sustained period of excellence for India under Rohit's tenure as skipper.

People from the Indian side of the scheduling debate retort by saying the scheduling doesn't matter because this team is so good, and they're correct, which makes the whole saga all the more maddening. This team is so excellent that it might have won the tournament anyway had all its matches been played in Pakistan.

Imagine how epic that would have been, seeing Kohli and co walk down team after team to win the Champions Trophy in the most hostile of conditions. Sadly that is not what transpired and cricket is poorer for it.

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