It’s one of the rare incidents in the history of cricket that a team was deprived of winning trophy due to the adamant and egoistic nature of the ACC chairman.

Team India had no choice but to celebrate without the trophy after winning the Asia Cup final. The ACC chief was firm on giving the trophy himself, while the Indian contigent wasn’t prepared for that. After nearly an hour delay, the presentation was finally conducted however, India had to manage the celebration with the imaginary trophy.

There were lot of tension between players during the whole tournament and it all started when Indian players and management decided to snub handshake with the Pakistani players from the 1st encounter in Asia Cup 2025.

Tilak Varma reveals whose Idea it was to use the Imaginary Trophy

Now Tilak Varma has revealed about the plan how Team India came up with the idea to use an imaginary trophy for photoshoots. As per the South Paw, it was Arshdeep Singh’s idea to use an imaginary trophy for Team India to pose and celebrate even when the real trophy was taken away by Mohsin Naqvi. Verma made the revealation during a podcast with Gaurav Kapoor.

“We were actually waiting for an hour. Many players were lying on the ground and Arshdeep was busy making reels. Everyone was sitting and waiting that the trophy will come on stage. One hour went by. There didn’t seem any sign of trophy. Everyone started to look around for the trophy. It wasn’t there. Arshdeep said let’s create our own atmosphere. Let’s do the same trophy celebration here without the actual trophy that we did in the T20 WC 2024. Then 3–4 players also agreed to do the same. Let’s do it.” — Tilak Varma, in conversation with Gaurav Kapoor

It was Tilak Varma’s heroics that helped India to defeat Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 final. However, the joy of winning the final was diluted to some extent when ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi decided not to give away the trophy to Team India. Team India however didn’t got discouraged and instead use the imaginary trophy in their photoshoots.