Year-ender 2025: A tumultuous year for Indian cricket, to say the least

There is usually never a dull moment in Indian cricket but the way 2025 panned out, it had been nothing short of tumultuous even by it’s standards. If the ICC Women’s World Cup triumph was like the icing on the cake, the year was never short on controversy and drama in the manner legends Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma signed off from Test cricket only to bounce back later.

The date, 2 November 2025, will remain etched in the memory as the day when Harmanpreet Kaur & Co broke the grass ceiling after what had been a long and laborious journey for the women spanning over exactly half-a-century from the times of Diana Eduljee and Shanta Rangaswamy. Earlier in the year, the Men in Blue capped their ICC T20 World Cup triumph last year with the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai under Rohit Sharma’s leadership.

There have been a number of individual newsmakers along the way. The way the Big Two of Indian cricket shrugged off question marks about their future in the last two ODI series – against Australia and South Africa to lay down the marker for the 2027 ICC World Cup spoke of their class. One also wondered who had been writing the script for Kohli as the one franchise man as Royal Challengers Bangalore ended their 18-year wait for their maiden IPL triumph.

The unfortunate turn of events that followed a day after the IPL final  will, however, remain as one of the darkest chapters in the storied history of the game. An official count of 11 fans died at a deadly stampede which ensued outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium where they converged to get a view of Kohli and his men for the victory parade. This certainly highlights how little care that is taken in terms of spectator experience for those who fill up the stadia round the year.

It’s a tough pick to zero in on five talking points of the year, but National Herald attempts it in order of importance:

ICC Women’s World Cup triumph

It was a case of being third time lucky for Indian women, who had lost the 50-overs World Cup final twice in 2005 and 2017. The sense of redemption and relief was palpable in the faces of Harmanpreet, her deputy and prolific Smriti Mandhana, Player of the Tournament Deepti Sharma – who knew what it was to be part of so-near-yet-so-far experience when they lost the 2017 final to England by just nine runs.

 They defeated South Africa in the final as key performances from Jemimah Rodrigues, including a match-winning 127 against Australia in the semi-final, cemented this historic achievement.

2025 ICC Champions Trophy

The ICC Champions Trophy, which resumed after eight years, saw India romp home as they defeated New Zealand by four wickets in a high-stakes final and remained undefeated throughout the event. A spin-heavy attack paved the way for India’s success, though there was enough criticism about Rohit Sharma & Co having the luxury of playing all their matches at the same venue while other teams had to shuttle between the UAE and Pakistan.

The build-up the tournament was marred by the sparring between the BCCI and PCB till they agreed on the hybrid model – which would now see neither India and Pakistan play on each other’s soil in ICC events for next three years.

Spotlight on Big Two

The year marked a tectonic shift in Indian cricket as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retired from Test cricket, right in the middle of the IPL. The last had not been heard on the subject – but their retirement saw Shubman Gill being appointed as new Test captain, beginning his tenure with a high-profile series against England.

Facing a tense future about their international careers, they were back in action after almost seven months in a ODI series in Australia – billed as the farewell series Down Under. However, both managed to turn a corner in the two recent series – Rohit emerging as the Player of the Series against Australia and Kohli in the home series against South Africa.

IPL: RCB end drought

After an 18-year wait, Royal Challengers Bengaluru finally lifted the IPL trophy in June 2025. This victory provided Virat Kohli with his first IPL title, though a major anti-climax followed when celebrations were tragically marred by a fatal stampede during the victory parade in Bengaluru.

The incident has left such a scar on the reputation of one of the decorated venues of the country as Bengaluru had lost out on matches of the Women’s World Cup.

Vaibhav Suryavanshi: Prodigious?

There are question marks about whether he is actually more than 14, but Vaibhav Suryavanshi had been doing things that defy logic. He announced his arrival with a deafening roar in the IPL, smashing a 35-ball century against Gujarat Titans (finishing 101 off 38 balls*), the second-fastest in tournament history. Then he bettered himself by scoring a 32-ball 100 and finishing on 144 off 42 balls for what was the sixth highest T20 century in the history of cricket. He proved he isn’t just a T20 slogger during the U-19 Asia Cup, where he played a marathon innings of 171 off 95 balls against the UAE.

Elsewhere, Abhishek Sharma emerged as a T20 monster this year. He came agonisingly close to breaking Kohli’s record for the most T20I runs in a single year for India and clawed his way up as the No.1 ranked ICC batter in this format.