Champions Trophy 2025: Relief. Redemption. Rahul

The team management, meanwhile, knew better. “KL averages 50 in one day cricket, that’s the answer,” is all head coach Gautam Gambhir had to say when asked he felt vindicated after Rahul guided India home in the semifinal against Australia last week. While that crucial knock itself felt like a redemption, the actual one came on Sunday. All-important final, the responsibility of seeing through the chase in his hands and Rahul, in his own words, was “s****ing myself at the end”

That said, he too knew all he had to do was stay in the middle. So long as he bats, he and the rest could take the team across the line. He knew he had the talent for it. Everyone knew. From captain Rohit Sharma to coach Gambhir to teammate Hardik Pandya, that is all they could talk about. But Rahul knew something else. It is not just the talent that matters, but holding his composure and not letting the pressure get to him as he did on November 19, 2023. And he did just that. He batted one ball at a time, remained unbeaten on 34 from 33 balls — just one four and a six — but what mattered in the end was him standing in the middle, hand aloft as Ravindra Jadeja embraced him.

Yes, it was Jadeja who hit the winning runs, but that was Rahul’s moment. It was his day of redemption as the Karnataka batter won his first global title as India cricketer. “I’m very happy at the moment, ICC victories are not so easy to get. It’s my first one so I’m very happy. Over the moon,” Rahul would say later.

Just as he walked off the pitch minutes after the game was won, Rahul raised his bat above in his right hand, looking into the sky and soaked it all in, the fireworks went off. It made for a perfect picture — just the first of many that would be posted on his social media.

And Sunday night was definitely just the first of the many global titles Rahul will win for India.