2025 refuses to make sense in a straight line. India’s Test side forgot how to win at home. The ODI team looked like world beaters. The T20I side kept winning despite a captain who could not score. Three formats, three separate movies. That is what makes this year worth talking about.
Test matches: The year home comforts disappeared
November 2025. Eden Gardens. South Africa defended 124 runs in the fourth innings and beat India by 30 runs. Bad day at the office.
Then Guwahati happened. South Africa smashed India by 408 runs. India’s biggest home defeat ever. South Africa had not won a Test series here since 2000. Not only did they win, they swept India 2-0. Just like New Zealand did in 2024.Two home whitewashes in two years. Spin-friendly fortresses have started shooting India in the foot.
Simon Harmer took 17 wickets in those two Tests. He kept making Indian batters look clueless. Aiden Markram caught nine catches in one match. That is a world record. It also quietly showed how often Indian batters were edging, poking, and giving chances.
The bigger context: 2025 was the year of transition
There is one thing you cannot separate from this Test season.
This was the year Indian Test cricket officially moved on from its last decade.
After the Border Gavaskar Trophy, India lost three pillars at once. Ravichandran Ashwin stepped away. Rohit Sharma finished his Test journey. Virat Kohli closed that chapter too.
Different roles. Same era. For the first time since 2010, India played a home Test season without Ashwin, Rohit, or Kohli in the XI. No Ashwin spells to break partnerships. No Rohit calm at the top. No Kohli presence at No.4. The dressing room felt lighter and heavier at the same time. Seen through that lens, the South Africa series reads differently. This was not a settled side defending dominance. This was a team learning new voices, new leaders, new pressure points.
India were not protecting a legacy anymore. They were building one, while still playing international cricket every few weeks.
Shubman Gill: The 25-year-old who equalled Bradman
After losing BGT in Australia, India toured England. Did not win the series. Did not lose the soul either. One man made sure of that.
Shubman Gill became Test captain at 25. What he did next belongs in history books.
754 runs in five Tests. That is the most by any captain in his first series. Only Don Bradman scored more back in 1936-37. Think about that. An Indian boy almost beat Bradman.
Four centuries. That ties him with Sunil Gavaskar and Bradman for most hundreds by a captain in one series. He made his first double hundred: 269 at Edgbaston. That is now the highest Test score by an Indian captain, beating Virat Kohli’s 254.He also broke Mohammad Yousuf’s record for most runs by an Asian batter in England. Yousuf’s 631 stood for ages. Gill made 754.
Zoom out to the full year: 983 runs in nine Tests. Average of 70.2.Five centuries. This was not hype. This was something else entirely.
Solid batters and the bowling burden
KL Rahul had a mixed year. 813 runs at 45. Three hundreds. The South Africa series damaged his average but he stayed one of India’s steadier top-order options.
Ravindra Jadeja became India’s third-highest Test run-scorer. 764 runs at 63.6. The trade-off? His bowling faded. 25 wickets at 38 average. Still useful, but not turning matches every time.
Mohammed Siraj carried the bowling attack. He picked up 43 wickets but he bowled 311 overs. That is the most by any Indian bowler this year. His spell in the final England Test saved India from defeat.
Jasprit Bumrah took 31 wickets in 8 Tests. He played less, but he still changed games when he showed up.
World Test Championship: The price of home defeats
That 4-5-1 record damaged India’s World Test Championship hopes badly. Losing at home to South Africa, plus dropped points in England, meant India were chasing the table instead of leading it.
Here is the real worry. This was India’s second straight home series loss in consecutive years. Losing at home twice in a row is not just bad luck anymore. It is a problem selectors cannot ignore.
One Day Cricket: Rohit and Virat’s perfect reply
White-ball cricket told a completely opposite story. India played 14 ODIs. Won 11. Lost 3.
India started by sweeping England 3-0 at home. Then they stormed through the Champions Trophy in February, winning every single game. Sure, India lost an away series in Australia later. But they returned home and beat South Africa.
After the Champions Trophy, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli quit Tests. Speculation about the 2027 World Cup went into overdrive. Are they too old? Their ODI numbers gave a loud answer. Virat made 651 runs. Rohit made 650 runs. One run between them. That symmetry tells its own story.
Champions trophy win and the middle order engine
Shreyas Iyer made 496 runs at 49.6 average. His strike rate was 89.5. Shubman Gill made 490 runs at 49 average. KL Rahul made 367 runs at 52.4, striking at 108.
Late in the year, India tried Yashasvi Jaiswal as opener. He smashed a match-winning century in the decider. That experiment suddenly looked like India’s future.
Harshit Rana took 20 wickets in 11 ODIs. Social media gave him grief, but he kept taking wickets. Kuldeep Yadav was second on the list with 19 wickets.
T20 Cricket: Abhishek’s Destruction and Captaincy Concerns
India won 16 out of 19 completed T20I matches in 2025. Won every series. In the Asia Cup, India beat Pakistan three times.
Abhishek Sharma was the headline act. 859 runs. Average of 43.Strike rate of 193.5. The innings everyone will remember? 135 off 54 balls against England. That was pure destruction.
But here is the biggest T20 worry. Captain Suryakumar Yadav had a rough year. 218 runs in 21 matches. Average of 13.6. Strike rate of 123. Not a single fifty. In a format built on momentum, that remains India’s biggest T20 concern.
Selection debates followed. Gill made vice-captain, played regularly, then got left out of the World Cup squad. Questions remain.
Varun Chakravarthy took 36 wickets in 18 innings. Kuldeep Yadav took 21 wickets in 9 innings. Arshdeep Singh led pacers with 15 wickets. Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya took 12 wickets each. Plenty of all-round options.
Final Word
So that was 2025.
Test cricket made India uncomfortable. They lost home advantage. They saw cracks in planning.
One day cricket looked solid. Calm. In control.
T20 cricket kept winning. But those warning lights about captaincy stayed on.
It wasn’t a disaster. But it was a year that asked louder questions than it answered