2025 was a pure roller coaster for Indian cricket fans -- a year packed with soaring highs, gut-wrenching lows, and the unmistakable sound of change.
While the white-ball trophy cabinet kept getting heavier, Team India's fortunes in Test cricket swung wildly between hope and despair in 2025.
Ecstasy, heartbreak, and frustration dominated the emotions of millions of fans as 'Trophies, Transition and Heartbreak' became the defining story of the year for the Men in Blue.
A year after winning the T20 World Cup, the Men in Blue triumphed in the ICC Champions Trophy to claim their second ICC white-ball title in less than a year.
It was sweet redemption for fans who had watched the Border-Gavaskar Trophy slip away Down Under after a decade of dominance.
But the Champions Trophy joy was short-lived as the two stalwarts, Rohit and Kohli, bid farewell to Test cricket amid prolonged slumps and question marks over their place in the team. The torch passed to a young Shubman Gill, who stepped up as captain of a new-look young Indian team.
Gill led fearlessly, captaining India to a hard-fought 2-2 series draw in England. But a neck injury sidelined him during the home Tests against South Africa, and the great Indian Test fortress crumbled once again -- ending in a shocking 0-2 home whitewash.
TROPHIES
Team India started off the year with the Test team being carried by the tired shoulders of their pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in Australia, as the team struggled to gain all-around consistency, failing to register the series win Down Under, having triumphed there in their last two tours.
The series served two immensely painful images: one of the talisman Kohli nicking a Scott Boland straight to the fielder in the slips and slapping his thigh out of anger as he succumbed to the 'corridor of uncertainty' once again.
The weakness outside the off-stump came to the fore, as he finished the Australia Test series with just 190 runs in nine innings, with an unbeaten century at Perth the only innings of note.
Captain Rohit also failed to make a mark with the bat. He tallied just 31 runs in five innings before he stood himself down from the fifth and final Test at Sydney following a run of low scores.
With two of India's biggest stars struggling to make a mark and Bumrah metaphorically and literally wounded while single-handedly carrying India's hopes with a record-shattering 32 wickets on the tour, India surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.
A hurt India then turned around things in style during the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai. Kohli starred with the bat, hitting an unbeaten century in the crucial match against Pakistan, while scoring a vital against Australia, while Rohit smashed a match-winning 76 against New Zealand in the final. With the ball, Mohammed Shami and Varun Chakravarthy picked up five-wicket hauls as India finished unbeaten to end their ICC Champions Trophy title drought after 12 years.
It was a moment of redemption for the Indian team, which suffered a heart-breaking loss against Australia in a one-sided final at Ahmedabad.
For K L Rahul, particularly, who made a sedate 107-ball 66 in the ODI World Cup final, it was a memorable comeback game. Playing in a new role of a finisher at No 5, he came up with useful contributions in knockout games against Australia and New Zealand, finishing with 140 runs at an average of 140.00, with a strike rate in the 90s.
Shreyas Iyer, with 243 runs in five matches at an average of 48.60 with two fifties finished as India's top-run-getter and overall second-highest run-getter in the tournament. Also, Chakravatthy (nine wickets in three matches at an average of above 15), Shami (nine wickets in five matches at an average of above 25) did the damage with the ball for India.
India continued their solid run in white ball cricket as Suryakumar Yadav captained them to the Asia Cup title in the UAE, winning all their seven matches, including three controversy-filled matches against Pakistan. The tournament produced its share of off-the-field controversies, with India's players refusing to shake hands with their Pakistan counterparts.
Things heated up even more when Pakistan Cricket Board filed a complaint against Suryakumar after he dedicated his team's win over Pakistan to the victims of Pahalgam terror attack and the Indian armed forces.
Abhishek Sharma proved to be unstoppable with the bat in the Asia Cup, smashing 314 runs in seven matches with three fifties and a strike rate of 200. Spinner Kuldeep Yadav emerged as the top wicket-taker with 17 wickets in seven matches.
Veteran Hardik Pandya brought his experience into play, guiding India to victory in the final against Pakistan with a composed knock of 69 not out from 53 balls.
TRANSITION
After spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin's retirement mid-way during the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, questions started arising on the two other veterans in Rohit and Kohli. BCCI's diktak meant that the senior had to playing a bit of domestic cricket to keep themselves in the fray for selection. However, their domestic comeback didn't go to plans as Kohli was bowled by Railways' pacer Himanshu Sangwan for just six, while Rohit managed just three and 28 against Jammu and Kashmir.
In May, Rohit and Kohli announced their shock retirements from Test cricket within a few days of each other, ahead of the all-important five-Test series in England.
In 67 Tests, he scored 4,301 runs at an average of 40.57 with 12 centuries, while he could have offered so much more as suggested by his first-class numbers, of 9,318 runs in 129 matches at an average of 49.04, with 29 centuries.
Kohli, who had averaged just around 30 since the beginning of 2020, seemed to have hung up his boots after failing to rediscover his form in Tests. He finished with 9,230 runs at an average of 46.85, with 30 centuries and 31 fifties in a 123-Test career which promised much more. He ended as India's fourth-highest run-getter in Test cricket, but failed to breach the landmark of 10,000-run mark, a major benchmark of greatness in red-ball cricket.
The biggest beneficiary of their departure with Gill, who was elevated to captaincy of the new-look Indian team aged 25, as the likes of Jaiswal, Rahul and Rishabh Pant formed the new batting core.
The results were encouraging in England. Despite the fact India missed their two big-ticket-sellers in Ro-Ko, millions tuned in as the five-match series produced 25 full days of epic Test match cricket, ending in a enthralling 2-2 draw.
Gill rewrote several batting records with a record-breaking tally of 754 runs at an average of 75.40, with four centuries and best score of 269. Having not registered a half-century outside Asia since series-sealing 91 at Brisbane in 2021, Gill finally made it count against England.
Gill went from being questioned for even his inclusion in playing XI and elevation as skipper to being the torch-bearer for next generation of India's Test batting, as it took 25 days of enthralling Test cricket, glimpses of strong, relentless leadership and some serious composure with the bat to change the narrative.
This trust in Gill's capabilities seeped into limited-overs formats too, as he was appointed as the ODI captain, with two years to go for the ODI World Cup 2027, replacing Rohit, the man who had the nation dancing in unison after two ICC titles within less than a year. While he did lose his first series in charge in Australia by 2-1, there is still a long way to go for Gill.
Gill ended the year as top run-getter in international cricket in 2025, with 1,764 runs in 35 matches at an average of 49.00, seven centuries and three fifties in 42 innings. In Tests, he scored 983 runs in nine matches at an average of 70.21, with five centuries and a fifty. In 11 ODIs, he made 490 runs, with two centuries and fifties each. T20Is were his sole format of struggle, scoring just 291 runs in 15 innings with no fifty at an average of just over 24.
HEARTBREAK
Indian cricket also had its fair share of setbacks in 2025. After the series draw against England and an easy 2-0 series win against West Indies at home, India's Test series suffered a shocking 0-2 whitewash at home against South Africa.
Gill's absence due to neck injury made a big difference as India failed to chase down 124 on a turning pitch at Kolkata's Eden Gardens, getting bowled out for just 93.
In the next match at Guwahati, some serious hitting down the order by Marco Jansen, maiden Test ton from Senuran Muthusamy and fine bowling spells from spinner Simon Harmer and Jansen handed India their worst-ever Test loss, by 408 runs and their second whitewash in back-to-back years after 0-3 loss to New Zealand last year.
Simon Harmer (17 wickets in two matches at an average of 8.94), Jansen (12 wickets at an average of 10.08 and 106 runs with best score of 93), Bavuma (102 in four innings with a fifty) had left India contemplating what was wrong?
Did the spin-friendly pitches play a role in the poor performances of the Indian batters at home? The struggles of the Indian batters in their own backyard was a far cry from dominance of Rohit,
Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane in their peak years.
2025 gave Indian cricket everything -- glittering trophies, surprise retirements, a new young leader, and a few brutal reminders that Test cricket remains the most unforgiving format.
How Team India Fared In 2025:
Tests: Played: 10, Won: 4, Lost: 5, Drawn: 1 (Lost away series in Australia, drew series 2-2 in England, won 2-0 against WI at home, lost 0-2 to South Africa at home)
ODIs: Played 14, Won: 11, Lost: 3 (ICC Champions Trophy winners, won series against South Africa and England at home, lost away ODI series to Australia)
T20Is: Played: 21, Won: 16, Lost: 3, Tied: 1, No-Result: 1 (Asia Cup winners)
India's Top Performers In International Cricket In 2025:
-Shubman Gill: 1,764 runs in 35 matches and 42 innings at an average of 49.00, with seven centuries and three fifties
-K L Rahul: 1,180 runs in 24 matches at an average of 47.20, with three centuries and five fifties in 30 innings.
-Yashasvi Jaiswal: 916 runs in 14 matches and 23 innings at an average of 41.63, with four centuries and three fifties.
-Kuldeep Yadav: 60 wickets in 25 matches at an average of 20.48, with five four-wicket hauls and a five-wicket haul.
-Varun Chakravarthy: 46 wickets in 24 matches at an average of 14.45, with a four-fer and two five-wicket hauls.
-Jasprit Bumrah: 45 wickets in 21 matches at an average of 21.77, with three five-wicket hauls.
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