India outshined Pakistan in a pulsating finale of the 2025 Asia Cup to become the continental champions for a record-extending 9 times. India staged remarkable turnarounds during the thrilling clash held at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday night to secure a memorable five-wicket win.
Kuldeep Yadav, Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube were the chief architects of the historic triumph in the title clash as Suryakumar Yadav’s men completed an unbeaten run in the tournament during which they defeated Pakistan thrice.
India made all the right noises with their dominant on-field performances as they won all seven of their matches en route to becoming the champions. One of the chief reasons for their dominance was the supersonic starts that
rising star Abhishek Sharma consistently provided at the top of the batting order.
However, Pakistan also generated headlines during the course of the tournament, lodging protest with the ICC for match referee Andy Pycroft’s conduct and reportedly mulling over boycotting the tournament. Things came to a head when they delayed the start of their group A match with UAE by an hour.
Indian team had refused to shake hands with Pakistan players and officials following which PCB complained with the ICC.
Abhishek took to Instagram to take an indirect dig at Pakistan for their Asia Cup histrionics with a classy six-word post.
“Wins make the loudest noise, always,” wrote Abhishek who also won player-of-the-tournament award for blasting 314 runs at a strike-rate of 200.
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The 25-year-old said it was part of his plan to go after the bowlers from ball one.
“…getting into this team after winning the World Cup, it wasn’t easy for any opener. But if you see, we had a plan that we want to play a game, you know, that we have to show intent from the first ball. So that was my plan, I worked really hard on that. And if you’re playing like this, you need special support from your coach and captain. I think that was the one thing I was getting from them throughout the tournament, before this as well,” Abhishek said during the post-match presentation.
