India’s Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma lift the trophy (Getty Images) Former England captain Michael Atherton has declared the Indian national cricket team the leading force in limited-overs cricket, saying their recent dominance puts them in a strong position to potentially hold all three ICC white-ball trophies at the same time.India enhanced their status by defeating the New Zealand national cricket team by 96 runs in the final of the Men’s Under-20 World Cup on Sunday. The win secured India a record third title and also made them the first team to successfully defend the T20 World Cup. It was also the first time the team lifted the trophy on home soil.
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Speaking to Sky Sports Cricket, Atherton said India’s excellence extends beyond the T20 format and reflects their wider dominance in white-ball cricket.“India is more than a front T20 side. They are a front white ball side at the moment,” Atherton said.He pointed to India’s remarkable record in recent ICC tournaments to highlight this.“In the last few ICC global events, before today, they have won 30 out of 32 matches. They have only been beaten in the World Cup 50 final here by Australia and in this match by South Africa earlier in the tournament.“Across the board in white-ball cricket, they are the front side. They were the strongest side here and they deserve to win,” he added.India’s dominance in ICC limited overs started during the 2023 Cricket World Cup where they won every match before losing the final to the Australian national cricket team. The team then went through the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup unbeaten and followed up with another perfect campaign in the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.Their only defeat in the last T20 World Cup came against the South African national cricket team during the Super Eight stage.With the next Cricket World Cup scheduled for next year, Atherton believes India now have a real chance of holding every ICC trophy in the limited-overs simultaneously.“They might clean it all up, next year is the 50-over World Cup and they now have a chance to hold the Champions Trophy, the T20 World Cup and the 50-over World Cup at the same time and that will certainly be their aim,” Atherton said.Another former England captain Nasser Hussain believes that India’s sustained success comes from a simple yet highly effective formula. According to him, the batting order packed with aggressive power hitting combined with the brilliant pace of the spearhead Jasprit Bumrah makes the team extremely difficult to beat.“The Indian formula is very simple.“A batting line-up full of power hitters that will give you over-par scores and a bowler in Bumrah who probably has enough under-par scores. He’s an absolute genius and when you combine those two elements, they’re virtually unbeatable,” he added.
