Winning an ICC tournament is the highest of achievements of a cricket team. Managements usually plan the transition of the squad such that the combination suits the nearest ICC event. The same is the situation in India. With the 1983 and 2011 50-over World Cup wins, the World T20 triumph in the inaugural season and Champions Trophy victories in 2002 and 2013, Team India has been fairly successful in ICC events. The team is also part of the World Test Championship Final in 2021. On that note, let’s take a look at the top nine Indian players who have played most ICC finals.
Batsmen
Sachin Tendulkar – 4 ICC Finals
ICC Knock Out Trophy 2000 || ICC Champions Trophy 2002 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
Sachin Tendulkar has played 45 games in World Cups and scored a total of 2278 runs. He tops the chart in this regard. Including two successful games, the Master Blaster played a total of four ICC finals. His last was the memorable one when India won the 50-over WC after 28 years.
MS Dhoni – 5 ICC Finals
ICC World T20 2007 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 || ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2013 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017
MS Dhoni is the player who brought the glory of trophies back to the Indian Team after a barren run of five years. In 2007, against expectations, MS Dhoni was appointed as the captain of the T20I team. The Jharkhand lad went on to win the trophy for his side. While in 2011, he was the Man of the Match in the final, Dhoni then also won the 2013 ICC Champions Trophy. With this, he became the only captain to win all the limited-overs ICC titles.
Virat Kohli – 5 ICC Finals
ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 || ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2013 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017 || ICC World Test Championship 2021
Apart from captaining the U19 World Cup squad to victory in 2008, Virat has five appearances in ICC tournament finals. While his cameo helped India stabilize in the 2011 World Cup finals, Virat was India’s best batsman in the 2014 T20 WC. He scored 77 runs from 58 balls in that game. He was also the top scorer in the 2013 Champions Trophy final with 43 runs from 34 balls. Virat is the captain of the team taking part in the World Test Championship final.
Rohit Sharma – 5 ICC Finals
ICC World T20 2007 || ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2013 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017 || ICC World Test Championship 2021
Rohit Sharma’s first appearance in an ICC final was in the 2007 T20 World Cup. He made 30 runs from 16 balls while batting at No.6 in that game. The momentum that he provided eventually helped India win the game. Since then, the Hitman has been part of four more summit clashes.
All-Rounders
Yuvraj Singh – 7 ICC Finals
ICC Knock Out Trophy 2000 || ICC Champions Trophy 2002 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 || ICC World T20 2007 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 || ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017
Yuvraj Singh tops this list of Indian players who have played most ICC finals. From a 19-year-old in 2000 to being a 36-year-old in 2017, Yuvi has played in seven ICC finals. The southpaw was successful thrice, and on all three occasions, he had a decent role to play in the tournament. Although he struggled to find his form in the final game, in the leading up matches of the successful campaigns, Yuvi had a big part to essay. His most memorable win is, of course, the 2011 World Cup, where he was also given the Man of the Series award.
Ravindra Jadeja – 4 ICC Finals
ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2013 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017 || ICC World Test Championship 2021
The Man of the Match when Indian won the Champions Trophy in 2013, Ravindra Jadeja has four ICC tournament final appearances in his career so far. The latest addition to this list is the World Test Championship Final 2021, in which the all-rounder would play at No.7. The Saurashtra cricketer was also part of the India U19 World Cup squad that won the trophy in 2008.
Spinners
R Ashwin – 4 ICC Finals
ICC World T20 2014 || ICC Champions Trophy 2013 || ICC Champions Trophy 2017 || ICC World Test Championship 2021
Although he has been restricted to a five-day format right now, R Ashwin still belongs to this list of Indian players who have played most ICC finals. The off-spinner could have had his count increased to five but lost the chance when he was replaced by S Sreesanth for the 2011 World Cup final.
Harbhajan Singh – 4 ICC Finals
ICC Champions Trophy 2002 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 || ICC World T20 2007 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
Harbhajan Singh has a total of five appearances in the ICC tournament finals. However, since the final of the 2002 Champions Trophy was a two-game affair, we have considered it as one appearance for this list. Bhajji picked up two wickets in the final of the 2003 World Cup while it was one in 2011. He went wicketless in the T20 WC final and collected a total of four wickets in the 2002 Champions Trophy final.
Pacers
Zaheer Khan – 4 ICC Finals
ICC Knock Out Trophy 2000 || ICC Champions Trophy 2002 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 || ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
Zaheer Khan has also played a total of four ICC finals. Similar to Bhajji, Zak was also part of the two games in the 2002 Champions Trophy final. The best left-arm pacer for India, Zaheer was also part of the final of the 2000 Knock Out Trophy, which the team lost to New Zealand.
