Pakistan cricket team manager Talat Ali revealed that it was Indian cricket legends like Ravi Shastri and Sunil Gavaskar, who played a huge role in their maiden Champions Trophy triumph earlier this year.

The ‘Men in Blue’ were hot favorites to clinch the title at the Oval but Pakistan produced an upset and lift their maiden title. Ali has now revealed that everybody wrote them off before the final and that fired up the entire team to perform at their maximum levels.

As quoted by Cricbuzz, Ali said, “India wrote us off in the final. I was listening to the analysis of Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri and they gave us no chance. That fired up the boys. It was called a no-contest and we were written off. We said let the bat and ball do the talking.”

He further added, “We had quite a bit of luck. Difficult to figure out why India put us in after winning the toss. With our strong bowling attack, once we put a decent total on the board, it was going to be tough for India.”

Pakistan saved gave their more than 100 percent as they outplayed arch-rivals India by a huge margin of 180 runs to win their maiden ICC Champions Trophy title.