Aakash Chopra picks India's top 5 moments of 2025, keeps RCB's IPL triumph at No. 5

Former India player Aakash Chopra has picked the top five moments of Indian cricket from 2025. He kept the Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2025 triumph at the fifth spot.

India won two ICC events, the 2025 Champions Trophy and the 2025 Women's World Cup, this year. On the domestic front, RCB ended their IPL trophy drought by beating the Punjab Kings (PBKS) by six runs in the final.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, 'Aakash Chopra,' the former India opener chose RCB's maiden IPL title win as the fifth most memorable moment of the year.

"At No. 5, I have kept RCB winning the IPL. You would ask how it's important from an Indian cricket perspective. IPL is our tournament and the stories there touch our hearts. I would have said the same thing if Punjab had won. With Chennai and Mumbai, that's no longer a story as they have done it many times, even Kolkata for that matter, but any team winning for the first time is a beautiful thing," he said. (1:10)

Chopra picked the drawn 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy as the fourth-best moment for India.

"At No. 4, I have kept India drawing the Test series on the England tour. It's because it wasn't expected. It exceeded our expectations because Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had just retired. It seemed like this tour would be very difficult because an extremely young team had gone," he reasoned.

The cricketer-turned-commentator opined that the 2025 Asia Cup win was India's third-best moment of the year.

"At No. 3, I have got winning the Asia Cup undefeated. You met Pakistan every Sunday and defeated them. Eventually, the final went slightly close, but the Indian boys held their nerve. Hardik Pandya wasn't available in the final. He is a clutch player, but they still did the job," Chopra observed.

India beat Pakistan by five wickets in the 2025 Asia Cup final. Although the Men in Blue were reduced to 20/3 in pursuit of a 147-run target, Tilak Varma's unbeaten 69 off 53 deliveries and his crucial partnerships with Sanju Samson (24 off 21) and Shivam Dube (33 off 22) helped them cross the line with two balls to spare.

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"It's also true that India won an ODI ICC event after 2013" - Aakash Chopra on the Men in Blue's 2025 Champions Trophy triumph

India beat New Zealand by four wickets in the final to bag the 2025 Champions Trophy. [P/C: Getty]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra chose the 2025 Champions Trophy triumph as Indian cricket's second-best moment of the year.

"At No. 2, I have got the Champions Trophy. There was an uproar there as well because Pakistan were hosting and India said they won't go there. Then the tournament was played in a hybrid model. All India matches were played in Dubai, which I think was a distinct advantage. However, it's also true that India won an ODI ICC event after 2013," he said. (6:10)

The analyst picked the 2025 Women's World Cup win as the year's best moment for Indian cricket.

"At numero uno is the Women's World Cup win. It is absolutely stellar because cricket will never be the same again. It's like the 1983 moment for men's cricket. This was surreal. This was phenomenal. It's difficult to win at home in any case and the campaign wasn't very good from the start. However, eventually, everything came together so beautifully," Chopra reasoned.

The Women in Blue beat South Africa by 52 runs in the 2025 Women's World Cup final. Although they lost three consecutive games in the league phase, they bounced back brilliantly to bag their maiden ICC trophy.

Edited by Kartik Iyer