‘India was nothing…’: Sarfaraz Ahmed opens up on beating India in Champions Trophy 2017 final

Champions Trophy is all set to get underway next week after a gap of almost eight years since the last edition was held. All the eight teams have announced their squads for the marquee event and preparations are in full swing for deciding the next ICC Champions Trophy winners.

Ahead of this year's mega event, former Pakistan skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has spoken about his team's mindset at the last Champions Trophy when they defeated India in the final to win the mega event.

While Sarfaraz's men won the final at The Oval by 180 runs, his team had earlier suffered a defeat at the hands of the Men in Blue in the league stage. Speaking to ICC, Sarfaraz spoke about how he took his team from the league stage defeat to the Champions Trophy.

"Afterwards (following defeat to India in the group stage), we had a great team meeting, and some of our senior guys - Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez - all said their piece. You need those types of characters around you. We changed our mindset from that day. The acrimony was very good for us, we made a couple of changes to the team and it helped our confidence," said the former captain said

“We played England in the semi-finals and our bowlers were just superb…Then, it was India in the final. I was just confident our level was very high and my message to the players ahead of the final was to relax.” the former Pakistan skipper added

"We knew we had beaten some of the best teams, so India was nothing we had not seen," Ahmed further stated.

Sarfaraz picks semi-finalists for Champions Trophy 2025: 

Sarfaraz went on to state that there will be high pressure on Pakistan, playing in their home conditions and being the defending champions. When asked to pick his four contenders for the semi-final spot, Ahmed, unsurprisingly, had Pakistan and India among the top four. 

"If I had to pick four semi-finalists, I'd probably go for Pakistan, India, Australia, and Afghanistan at this stage, but I would not rule anyone out," the former Pakistan skipper added.