India’s latest ICC run — 14 games, 13 wins, one abandoned, zero defeats, two trophies — is the kind of record that commands genuine admiration. Perfection is a rare, elusive beast — except in Indian exams, where college cut-offs waver teasingly around 99 or 100 per cent, reducing our academic aspirations to mild despair.
Sporting perfection, though, remains more elusive, rare enough to inspire pub trivia that even the drunkest bloke can confidently mumble.
Rohit Sharma’s men are now our homegrown version of Arsene Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’— that Arsenal side of 2003–04 which breezed through an entire Premier League season without a single defeat (26 wins, 12 draws), giving the Londoners an attitude of superiority despite 20 subsequent seasons without a league title.
Cricket has only known two previous moments of such dominance — the West Indies in 1975 and Australia in 2003, both of which completed undefeated World Cup campaigns.
Rohit Sharma’s only loss in the tournament came in the coin toss — five out of five. Yet, without this minor advantage of deciding whether to bat or bowl first, India sailed through unbothered, with only the Kiwis in the final offering some resistance. “We went undefeated despite losing all five tosses,” the India captain said. “Winning a tournament without a single defeat is a massive achievement, and it gives me immense satisfaction.”
Each time, even before the pressure mounted, someone stepped up: Shubman Gill with a century in the opener against Bangladesh, Hardik Pandya and Kuldeep Yadav with crucial wickets against Pakistan, Virat Kohli against Pakistan and Australia, Rohit’s measured 76 in the final, or an unruffled K.L. Rahul who kept any hint of an opposition turnaround comfortably at bay.
India did thrive in the comfort of staying in a single city, while others crisscrossed between Pakistan and Dubai just to face them. Runner-up New Zealand covered 7,048 km during the 19-day tournament. The slow, turning surfaces in the UAE allowed India to stack its squad with four spinners, while its opponents scrambled to adjust from the flatter, more obliging wickets in Pakistan. But it would be unfair to credit India’s triumph solely on geography or the pitches.
India clocked nearly 10,000 kilometres during the 2023 home ODI World Cup, winning all but that ill-fated final at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Since 2023, the team has won 23 of its 24 white-ball matches in three ICC tournaments, across two formats. It is clearly the outstanding team of this era and perhaps one of the greatest white-ball sides the game has ever seen. Its brilliance can never be overshadowed by accusations of unfair advantage.