Team India have a trophy to endorse their white ball supremacy as seen in a two-year run in three ICC events in which they lost only one match to the Australians, which was the ODI World Cup in India, while winning 22, including the Champions Trophy. As a squad, they honed their game skills to a level of consistency that makes them true champions. Team India’s victory gladdened the hearts of their billion fans while leaving the rest of the cricket world fuming over the preferential treatment that saw them play all their games in Dubai, skipping Pakistan which they could not visit for security reasons. That the New Zealanders stretched them to the end of the penultimate over while defending a total in Dubai on Sunday night says much about the Kiwis’ competitive and sporting spirit. And yet the Indians were formidable through the tournament with a team that contained four all-rounders who lent heft to the batting, great finishers in Virat Kohli and K.L. Rahul who absorbed all the pressures in the chase on slowing pitches and a skipper who believed in batting with near reckless abandon to give the team dynamic starts against the new ball that are the key to strategically timed aggression the format calls for. Having unselfishly dropped himself from the Sydney Test in Australia, captain Rohit displayed exemplary leadership in sustaining India’s comeback trail across two tournaments in the space of 10 months while keeping faith with a chosen set of players with limited-overs capabilities. Convinced that the same unselfish way of going after the new ball is in the best interest of his team, Rohit has proved himself to be a great general even if he could do with a bit of luck with the toss. Body-shamed by a misandrist of a Congress spokesperson, Rohit put up a ‘stout’ attacking show in the final that compensated for the inevitable slowing down against spin on pitches that could have come straight out of the subcontinent. The contributions of Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer and Hardik Pandya made this a combined effort by the top order that gave the batting lineup its awe-inspiring look. The outstanding performers of the ODI tournament were the spinners, of whom India played as many as four in the playing XI. The most crucial element was the advent of Varun Chakravarty, who was not in the original squad and who brings an asphyxiating quality by persistently harrying batsmen with accuracy more than bedazzling variety. With Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel chipping in, there was never a tension-free moment for opposing batsmen in the middle overs. Having gotten over their bogey team Australia in a hard-fought semi-final, Team India were up against another southern hemisphere team that has always punched above its weight though it was again confined to the invariable role of bridesmaid rather than bride. The trans-Tasman teams and South Africa had to journey to Dubai from out of Pakistan, but those conditions were known long before the first ball was bowled. With two of four ICC trophies in their kitty, Team India, along with their seniors, may have raised their ambitions to chasing the other two in the ODI World Cup and the World Test Championship (WTC), both of which are slotted for 2027. In its blend of youth and experience the current team and a few talents who were not in this squad can make fine combinations in any of the three formats and Indian cricket has the clout to help them try for the quadruple.