Shubman Gill admits pressure of final but assures team will make amends for 2023 loss

India vice captain Shubman Gill has said that the team will look to do what they couldn’t in their last ICC ODI event final.

As they take on New Zealand in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Sunday, March 9 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai. India faced a heartbreaking loss in the final of the ODI World Cup 2023 against Australia by six wickets on home soil.

Hence, they don’t have happy memories of an ICC ODI event final in recent times. Ahead of the big game against New Zealand, Shubman Gill admitted that the pressure of the finl would be there on their mind. However, he said that they will look to make amends for their loss in 2023.

“It’s my second ICC event for team India and hence I’m definitely excited. We’ll try and achieve what we couldn’t do the last time. There is always big-match pressure. But if you look at the last game, Australia didn’t have a lot of experienced bowlers. The match was big. In such matches, whoever handles pressure and doesn’t think a lot that they’re playing final, those teams win. Look at the teams of the past like West Indies and Australia. They used to play well in knockout games as they would keep the occasion away from the game,” said Gill in the pre-match press conference.

India’s last ODI title came way back in 2013 as they beat England to win the ICC Champions Trophy. Since then, the Men in Blue have reached the knockout stages of the next four ODI events but haven’t been able to clinch the title. They reached the semi final of the ODI World Cup 2015 and 2019 and also played in the final of the Champions Trophy 2017 and World Cup 2023.

However, they couldn’t get one step ahead to have their hands on the elusive trophy. Having finally broken their 11-year-long drought for an ICC title last year by winning the T20 World Cup 2024, India will look to register their second successive ICC triumph as they take the field against New Zealand in Dubai.