The highlight of the year for India was the country’s maiden ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup title. After being the finalist twice, Indian women, led by Harmanpreet Kaur, finally lifted the coveted silverware after a win over South Africa in the final.
Indian women also made history by winning the inaugural T20 World Cup for the blind.
In men’s cricket, India, under the leadership of Rohit Sharma, lifted the Champions Trophy. With Suryakumar Yadav at the helm, India secured the Asia Cup T20 tournament defeating Pakistan in the final. Team India also squared the series in England 2-2 under Shubman Gill but bit the dust against South Africa at home, losing the series 0-2.
In July, Divya Deshmukh won the Women’s Chess World Cup in Georgia. The then 19-year-old came through six gruelling rounds, and then beat the seasoned Koneru Humpy in the final to script one of Indian chess’ best stories.
In the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi in September-October, India’s 73-member strong contingent won 22 medals (six gold, nine silver and seven bronze), which was more than the 17 from Kobe, Japan, in 2024.
In badminton, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bagged a men’s doubles bronze in the World Championships, which continued India’s streak of having bagged a medal at every Worlds since 2011
At the world level, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner met in three straight Grand Slam tournament finals, with Alcaraz winning the French Open and the US Open, and Sinner winning Wimbledon.
In Track & Field, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis broke the pole vault world record for an astonishing 14th time, clearing 6.30m at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
In Formula One, Lando Norris, his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen were locked in a three-way fight going into the last race in Abu Dhabi. Norris, eventually, won his first Formula One title by finishing on the podium in the Middle-East.
Here we look at the some of the major moments
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Reuters
The Indian women’s cricket team made history by winning their first Cricket World Cup defeating South Africa in the final at Navi Mumbai on November 2, 2025. They seven-time champion Australians in the semifinals with a magnificent century from Jemimah Rodriguez.
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PTI
The Indian women also made history by lifting the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup for the Blind in Sri Lanka on November 24, 2025.
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Getty Images
The Indian men’s cricket team defeated New Zealand in the finals in Dubai on March 9, 2025 to lift their third Champions Trophy.
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ANI
Lionel Messi touched down in India for a highly anticipated three-day GOAT Tour from December 13, 2025. The football legend travelled to four cities — Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi — making it one of the most high-profile sporting visits the country has ever witnessed.
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PTI
In Kolkata, violence erupted at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on December 13, 2025 after Messi made a brief public appearance there. Thousands of spectators, not only from Kolkata but also from different parts of the country, had arrived at the stadium to catch a glimpse of their favourite football star. Messi’s convoy entered the stadium at exactly 11:30 a.m. He was accompanied by footballers Luis Suarez and Rodrigo De Paul. The footballers looked happy to witness the frenzy of football fans gathered at the stadium.
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Emmanual Yogini
In Hyderabad, Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy scored what many in political circles believe a perfect political goal, as global football icon Lionel Messi watched on, alongside his boss and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, the man who once placed his full political faith in Revanth. In Mumbai, India’s cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar walked across the Wankhede Stadium outfield towards Argentina’s football superstar Lionel Messi on December 14, 2025 evening that will be etched in Mumbai’s sporting folklore. Tendulkar presented Messi with the iconic 2011 World Cup jersey, bearing his surname and the No. 10 on the back.
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AFP
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty bagged the men’s doubles bronze in the World Championships, continuing India’s streak of having bagged a medal at every Worlds since 2011.
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Ashley Landis
Sweden’s Armand “Mondo” Duplantis broke the pole vault world record for the 14th time on September 15, 2025, clearing 6.30m to capture his third world championship.
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Getty Images
Team India shone well in the white-ball cricket by lifting the Asia Cup T20 tournament in Dubai. Under the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav, India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in the final in Dubai on September 28, 2025. The presentation ceremony faced some controversies with the Indian cricket team refusing to accept the trophy from ACC Chairman Mohsin Naqvi and the BCCI has written to ICC on the issue.
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R.V. Moorthy
The Indian men’s hockey team beat South Korea 4-1 in the final to lift the Asia Cup trophy and qualify for next year’s World Cup, in Bihar on September 7, 2025. India ended an eight year wait to be crowned the continental champion, winning 4-1 against defending champion Korea in the final of the Asia Cup and assuring itself of a spot at the 2026 World Cup.
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PTI
Indian Test captain Shubman Gill’s leadership skills were on display in his debut series against England. England won the first Test by 5 wickets, India bounced back in the second by defeating the hosts by 336 runs. England once again went into the lead by defeating India by 22 runs in the third Test. With the fourth Test drawn, India bounced back on the last day of the final Test with some scintillating bowling stuff from Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna and won by 6 runs.
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PTI
Divya Deshmukh, India’s latest Grandmaster, becam only the fourth Indian woman to win the World Cup, that most coveted of titles in chess. The 19-year-old from Nagpur recorded the greatest moment of her young career when she beat fellow-Indian Koneru Humpy in the tiebreakers of the World Cup final at Batumi, Georgia, on July 28, 2025. Both games in the classical format had been drawn, leading to the shootout in speed chess.
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Shahbaz Khan
With their tails up after squaring the series in England, Team India failed to prove their prowess in the spin-friendly wickets in India. World Test Champions South Africa proved why they are the champion side. The first Test ended inside three days. India failed to get past 123 runs in the fourth innings. India were bundled out for 93. Captain Gill got injured and was ruled out of the Test series. Much more embarrassment was in store for Team India as they lost the second Test by a huge margin of 408 runs. With this loss, India have lost five Test matches in a row (three against New Zealand and two against South Africa).
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Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
Gold medallist Shailesh Kumar and bronze medallist Varun Singh Bhati pose for photograph during felicitation ceremony for Men’s High Jump T63 event during the World Para Athletics Championships 2025, at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, in New Delhi on September 27, 2025.
India won four medals on October 5, 2025 to wrap up its most successful outing ever at the World Para Athletics Championships, finishing with 22 medals on a dramatic final day that saw medals being upgraded and a sprint run again because of technical faults.
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R. Ragu
India secured the bronze medal at the FIH Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup 2025 by orchestrating a sensational come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Argentina at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai on December 11, 2025.
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K.R. Deepak
South Africa were on a high entering the ODI series. But it was India, led by K.L. Rahul, who ruled the white-ball cricket with some dominating performances from Virat Kohli (two centuries) and Rohit Sharma. India won the first ODI by 17 runs but South Africa bounced back to win the second by chasing a huge target of 359. In the third, India convincingly defeated South Africa with a brilliant century from Yashasvi Jaiswal and brilliant half-centuries from Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Kohli went past maestro Sachin Tendulkar by scoring his 53rd century in the ODIs and also clinched the man-of-the-series award.
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AP
A dominant Australia collected the last four wickets they needed on December 21, 2025 to win the third Test and retain the Ashes in just 11 days of cricket, crushing the dreams of an England side who finally showed some fight. The tourists needed a win to keep the five-match series alive after being crushed by eight wickets at Perth and Brisbane, with two more Tests still to play at Melbourne and Sydney.
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PTI
Grandmaster Vaishali Rameshbabu won the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on September 15, 2025. Vaishali made it to the women’s Candidates tournament after a hard-fought draw against former world champion Zhongyi Tan of China.
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On January 26, 2025, Jannik Sinner claimed his second consecutive Australian Open championship, never facing a single break point and using his complete game to outplay and frustrate Alexander Zverev for a 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory in the final. Sinner, a 23-year-old Italian, is the youngest man to leave Melbourne Park with the trophy two years in a row since Jim Courier in 1992-93. Sinner rose to No. 1 last June, remaining there for every week since, and the gap between him and No. 2-ranked Zverev was pronounced as can be in Rod Laver Arena. This was the first Australian Open final between the men at No. 1 and No. 2 since 2019, when No. 1 Novak Djokovic defeated No. 2 Rafael Nadal — also in straight sets.
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Reuters
Defending champion Neeraj Chopra endured a nightmarish outing at the World Championships’ men’s javelin throw finals to end a disappointing eighth, outperformed by debutant compatriot Sachin Yadav who logged a personal best performance to finish a creditable fourth. On May 17, 2025, Neeraj finally breached the elusive 90m frontier with a 90.23m throw but the trailblazing Indian had to settle for a second place behind Germany’s Julian Weber in a dramatic contest at the Doha leg of the prestigious Diamond League Meeting series.
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On September 7, 2025, Carlos Alcaraz ended the reign of Jannik Sinner with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win to claim the U.S. Open title and tighten his grip on the era-defining rivalry between the torch-bearers of the men’s game. In a perfect echo of the triumph that first propelled him to the number one spot in 2022, Alcaraz’s second New York title lifted him back to the top of the world rankings as the 22-year-old Spaniard displaced Sinner and took his Grand Slam trophy haul to six. On September 6, 2025, Aryna Sabalenka retained her U.S. Open crown with a 6-3, 7-6(3) win over American eighth seed Amanda Anisimova in the U.S. Open women’s final, underlining her claim as the modern queen of the hardcourt. The Belarusian has not missed a hardcourt major final since 2022 and her latest trophy brings her Grand Slam haul to four, as she became the first woman to win back-to-back U.S. Opens since Serena Williams claimed three straight from 2012 to 2014.
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Reuters
Following the closest finish to a title fight in 15 years, McLaren’s Lando Norris is the new World Champion after taking the third place he needed in the Abu Dhabi season finale. It ended an extraordinary campaign, not only for Norris but also his arch rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri.
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Inter Miami secured their first MLS Cup crown on December 6, 2025, beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 3–1 at Chase Stadium as Rodrigo De Paul and Tadeo Allende struck late from a pair of Lionel Messi assists. Despite Thomas Mueller driving a Vancouver side that controlled long stretches and created the better chances, the final ultimately swung on the Argentine’s influence, as he secured his first MLS league title and capped his finest season on American soil.
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AP
Cole Palmer scored twice and fed João Pedro for a goal as Chelsea overwhelmed Paris Saint-Germain in the first half and beat the European champions 3-0 on July 14, 2025 in the final of the first expanded Club World Cup. Palmer had almost identical left-footed goals from just inside the penalty area in the 22nd and 30th minutes, then sent a through pass that enabled João Pedro to chip goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma in the 43d for his third goal in two starts with the Blues.
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AFP
A 3-0 win against the Netherlands in Morocco on November 8, 2025 saw the North Koreans lift a second successive Women’s U-17 World Cup, and fourth in all, following their victory 12 months ago.
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Getty Images
On January 25, 2025, Madison Keys won her first-ever Grand Slam title as she upset two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in Melbourne. Keys was considered a future star before she was a teen, and this was her second chance to play for a major title: The first ended in a lopsided loss at the 2017 U.S. Open, an experience that taught her she would need to be able to play through nerves. It was only after accepting she might never capture a Slam title, and would be fine with that — a change that came after years of therapy — that Keys actually got there.
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AP
On June 9, 2025, bad starts in Grand Slam finals are nothing new for Carlos Alcaraz, and each time it’s happened he has won the tournament anyway. But not in such dramatic style at the French Open final, when the Spaniard rallied from two sets down and saved three match points to beat Jannik Sinner 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (10-2) for his fifth major title in as many finals. It was his second straight French Open title with a comeback, after trailing 2-1 in sets to Alexander Zverev in last year’s final, and a third major title from behind, following his five-set win against Novak Djokovic in the 2023 Wimbledon final.
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POOL
On June 8, 2025, Coco Gauff won the French Open for the first time by defeating top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 in the final. The second-ranked Gauff came out on top of a contest that was full of tension and momentum swings to claim her second major trophy after the 2023 U.S. Open, where she also came from a set down to beat Sabalenka in the final. Gauff raised the winners’ trophy aloft, then kissed it several times. She held her hand over her heart when the U.S. national anthem played.
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HANDOUT
On July 14, 2025, Jannik Sinner’s emotionally restrained, methodical and precise tennis earned its greatest gift yet as he dethroned two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to win his first Wimbledon and fourth Major title. For the World No. 1, it was sweet revenge for the Roland-Garros defeat, where Alcaraz had beaten him from three championship-points down in the fourth set. The 23-year-old is now the first Italian to win the singles trophy at SW19. A day before, American Amanda Anisimova learnt it the hard way as Iga Swiatek, in a remarkable display of big-match temperament and tactical nous, thrashed her 6-0, 6-0 to win a maiden Wimbledon women’s singles title. It was the Pole’s sixth Major and first trophy of any kind since French Open 2024.
