Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has warned the Indian team ahead of their ICC Champions Trophy final against New Zealand on Sunday. The match starts from 2.30 PM IST in Dubai.
India beat the Aussies in the semi-final, while The Kiwis beat the Proteas to make their way into the final. India and New Zealand will play each other in an ICC Champions Trophy final for the first time since 2000.
ADVERTISEMENT
Loading...
Sunil Gavaskar Wants Runs From Openers, Wickets With The New Ball
New Zealand beat India in the Champions Trophy final back in 2000. Now, Sunil Gavaskar, the former Indian skipper has spoken about a few areas of concern for the Indian Team heading into the big final. He said that Rohit Sharma is yet to find his form with the bat and Kuldeep Yadav seems to be struggling with the ball. He is averaging over 30 in this tournament so far and has picked up on five wickets in four matches.
"They haven't because when you look at the openers, they haven't really given the Indian team the kind of start that they had hoped for. That has not happened. So, clearly, I think there's a shortcoming over there. Even with the new ball, you might want to take wicket in the first 10 overs. You definitely want to take about 2 or 3 wickets. That's also not quite been happening. In the middle overs, we have not got wickets, even though the runs have not been flowing. So those are areas that you get better in those areas, the better the chances of going on and winning the final." Gavaskar said to India Today.
The former Indian skipper also backed the Indian team to play the same XI that played against Australia in the semi-final and in the game against New Zealand before that. India played the first two games with three spinners. However, with the pitch in Dubai assisting the spinners, the management replaced Harshit Rana with Varun Chakravarthy in the XI and the spinner has picked up seven wickets in the tournament in just two games. He holds the trump card for Rohit Sharma in the final.
"I think it is going to be 4 spinners. It has to be. Why change now? It's shown Chakravarthy's inclusion, Kuldeep's inclusion has shown how effective they can be. And also, wicket-taking balls are the best dot balls in limited-overs cricket or any format of the game. So they've been doing that, so there should be no change at all," said Gavaskar.
