National Sports Day special: Top achievements in Indian sports over the past year

Indian men’s cricket team wins ICC Champions Trophy

India celebrate their victory with the Champions Trophy during the ICC Champions Trophy Final match between England and India at Edgbaston on June 23, 2013 in Birmingham, England. (Photo by Christopher Lee-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)

A young Indian team devoid of seniors like Virender Sehwag, Yuvrag Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, and the retired Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid was written off in the face of the testing conditions in England.

Just like the unfancied 2007 team, which went on to win the T20 World Cup, this young team too surprised one and all with their performances, as they went on to lift the Champions Trophy, beating the hosts by just five runs in a thrilling final.

The tournament saw the Indian youngsters stepping up convincingly to fill the void left by the seniors, as we saw terrific performances by the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik.