 "Gautam Gambhir reflected on multiple aspects as India look ahead to the 2025 Champions Trophy. PTI")
Team India completed a 3-0 ODI series sweep against England at home as they head to the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy on a positive note. While the Men in Blue will be on a high following their series triumph, there are some questions with regard to team selection that need to be answered.
One of them is that of the left-right batting combination, which head coach Gautam Gambhir has preferred. In what can be considered an unusual strategy, all-rounder Axar Patel batted ahead of wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul at No 5 in the first two ODIs. The move to promote Axar Patel to the batting order ahead of Rahul was met with criticism from commentators . Former cricketers Kris Srikanth, Dodda Ganesh and Parthiv Patel have spoken against the move.
“That’s the way cricket is meant to be played,” Gambhir said at the post-match press conference when asked about the move to promote Axar.
“I know a lot of people talk about it, but that’s the way we got to play the game, and that’s the way cricket should be played. It’s not about the batting order, it’s about who can create what impact. And it’s about just if you have the option of putting a quality left-hand batter in the middle; why won’t you do that?” he added.
Gambhir further questioned why India needed five right-handers at the top of the batting order.
“Why would you want to have top five as right-handers? We don’t look at averages and stats and all that stuff. We look at who can deliver more at that number. And Axar has done fabulously well. Both the games [in which] he got the opportunity, he delivered for us. I know there will always be talk - there will always be people talking about it - but I think that’s the way we want to go in future as well,” continued the 43-year-old.
It’s also relevant to note that the left-right batting combination was prominently used during Gambhir’s stint as mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2024, which they went on to win.
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View All‘KL is a No 1 wicketkeeper for us’: Gambhir
KL Rahul was the preferred wicketkeeper choice for India during the ODI series against England, which meant Rishabh Pant did not get a single game. And if Gambhir’s comments are to go by, Rahul will continue to don the wicketkeeping gloves come the Champions Trophy.
“At the moment, KL is a No.1 wicketkeeper for us, and he’s delivered for us,” said the former Delhi cricketer. And see, when you’ve got two wicketkeepers in this squad, you can’t play both the wicketkeepers with the kind of quality we’ve got. Hopefully, whenever he gets that opportunity, he should be ready for it. That’s all I can say at the moment. Right now, KL is the one who’s going to start," he added.
‘Opportunity for them to deliver’: Gambhir on Bumrah-less pace attack
Gambhir said that while India will miss the injured Jasprit Bumrah at the Champions Trophy , it’s a great opportunity for the trio of Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana to put up their best. “If he’s (Bumrah) injured, he’s injured, whether it’s me, whether it’s the captain, we can’t do much about it," he said.
“Obviously, we know that he’s an important factor. But as I mentioned, people like Harshit (Rana), Arshdeep (Singh), Mohammed Shami, all these guys will put their hand up. It’s a great opportunity for them to try and deliver for the country," he added.
While Harshit is still a newbie in international cricket, Shami made his international comeback only recently , after he was sidelined for over a year due to an ankle injury he suffered during the 2023 ODI World Cup. “Look, it’s always good to have a world-class bowler back. With his (Shami’s) experience, with his quality, we all know what he can do with the ball in his hand," said the former batter.
“Obviously, we were trying to manage his (Shami) workload. That’s the reason why we played him two T20s and two one-dayers. Hopefully, he’s going to be fresh and ready to go in the Champions Trophy," he stated.
Gambhir also explained the reason behind including Varun Chakravarthy in India’s Champions Trophy squad. Varun, a leg-spinner, was picked in place of batter Yashasvi Jaiswal, who has been demoted to being a non-travelling reserve.
Varun’s inclusion means India have five spinners in the squad, including Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Washington Sundar.
“Look, the only reason was because we wanted another wicket-taking option in the middle [overs]. And we know what Varun brings to the table, we know that Varun can be a massive threat. And with a lot of teams who haven’t played him, he could be an x-factor as well. I’m not going to say that he’s going to start and all that stuff, but it’s always good to have a strong bowling line-up because we know that if he can actually get those wickets in the middle, it’s always going to be an advantage,” he said.
‘He wasn’t supposed to be benched throughout the series’: Gambhir on Iyer
One of the several talking points during the series was that of Yashasvi Jaiswal being preferred over Shreyas Iyer in the playing XI . Jaiswal was a pre-planned choice in the playing XI ahead of the series opener against England, whereas Iyer only came into the XI after Virat Kohli was ruled out due to a knee injury. Gambhir, however, said that Iyer wasn’t meant to be benched throughout the series.
“He wasn’t supposed to be benched throughout the series,” said Gambhir. “We wanted to give Yashasvi a go in the first game and see what he can bring to the table because he was in really good form in Australia. So we wanted to see what kind of an innings can he play. I know you can’t judge someone by one innings, but we always knew that Shreyas is going to be an important player for us. What he’s done at No. 4, be it the World Cup or forget about even the World Cup, he’s just an important player,” explained the former southpaw.
Gambhir spoke on the importance of squad rotation during a small series like the one against England. “So sometimes when you’ve only got three games, you want to try and rotate your squad as well. See, like for today, we could have easily played Shami but we wanted to give Arsh a go.
“We could have played Jadeja as well, but we gave Washi a go as well. So when you’ve got Champions Trophy around the corner, you want to try and maximise these three games and try and give everyone an opportunity. Shreyas was always in the scheme of things, and good that he played all three games,” he added.