India head coach Gautam Gambhir spoke after his side’s win in the Champions Trophy 2025 semi-final against Australia. Despite India’s unbeaten run in the ongoing tournament, Gambhir opined that there is always a room for improvement and stated that the team can do even better and has not played a “perfect game” yet.
Rohit Sharma and Co. defeated Australia by four wickets on Tuesday. Batting first, Australia put up a competitive total of 264 runs on the scoreboard. India lost early wickets in the run-chase but did not press the panic button as they eventually crossed the finish line in 48.1 overs.
Virat Kohli top-scored for India with an 84-run knock. Shreyas Iyer scored a 62-ball 45, while KL Rahul remained unbeaten on 42 runs off 34 balls to see India through.
Though India achieved the win comfortably, questions lingered on captain Rohit, who again fell cheaply, scoring only 28 runs off 29 deliveries. In the other matches in the competition, he scored 41, 20 and 15 runs. While Rohit is facing the criticism for his lack of runs, Gambhir defended the 37-year-old, stating the he sets the tempo for the team and is judged on the basis of impact.
"You evaluate from the runs; we evaluate from the impact. That's the difference. You evaluate from the stats; we evaluate from the impact," Gambhir said as quoted in the post-match press conference.
"Look, the final of the Champions Trophy is now coming up. What can I say before that? If your captain bats with such a tempo, it just gives a very good signal to the dressing room that we want to be absolutely fearless and courageous. As journalists, you only look at numbers and averages. But as a team, we don't look at the numbers or averages. If the captain puts up his hand first, then there is nothing better than that for the dressing room," he added.
There were doubts on Kohli’s ability to play spin before the tournament. However, the veteran responded well, showing he still can handle the spinners effectively. Gambhir talked about this, asserting that it’s natural for a player who has featured in 300 ODIs to be dismissed by a certain kind of bowlers.
"When you play 300 (301) games, you will end up getting out to some of the spinners," Gambhir hit back. "I think he's got a hundred in this competition, he's got a ninety (84) in this competition and eventually when you've got runs in this competition, you will eventually get out to some kind of a bowler. When you've played 300 ODIs, you will eventually get out to certain kind of bowlers, and that's okay."
The Indian head honcho further shared why the team management prefers KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant. He also explained the rationale behind sending Axar Patel to bat above Rahul.
"KL averages 50 in one-day cricket, that's the answer. I don't care about it (his selection calls being vindicated). My job is to be honest with 140 crore Indians and my players in the dressing room. I don't care what people say about it, how they talk about it, whether they've got agendas."
"In a team sport, numbers don't matter, batting positions don't matter, it's the impact that matters. KL has done really well at No. 6. We feel that he gives us more depth, and that is how we want to play the game. KL has done that really happily, and he's done that really well at number six."
Though India won the match with 11 balls remaining, Gambhir did not feel it was as close as it looked. However, he admitted that the team has not played a perfect game yet.
“No, I don't think so (it was close). I think it was very, very professional and the reason why I say that is because we had wickets in hand and that was the plan because we know that obviously wickets here in the second half can actually get a little slower. In the last game, we batted first, and we thought that it was very important to have wickets in hand at the 40-over mark. And we actually planned the chase really, really well. Even if you see after 40 overs, we were only four down. We had two set batters in. So, we knew that the quality and depth we have, we were always under control."
“See, in international sport, you want to keep improving. You don't say that you've ticked all the boxes. There's always room to improve - be it in batting, fielding, or bowling. And we still haven't played the perfect game. We still have one more game to go. Hopefully, we can play a perfect game,” Gambhir expressed.
India Reach Final of Champions Trophy 2025
With their win over Australia, India have qualified for the final of the Champions Trophy 2025. They have recorded wins in all of their matches in the tournament so far.
The Rohit-led side will face one of South Africa and New Zealand in Dubai on March 9. Before this, South Africa and New Zealand will face-off in the semi-final 2 on March 5 in Lahore.
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