On Tuesday, until Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer put together a 91-run stand, India and Australia were punching and counter-punching. Their batsmen, especially Stave Smith and Alex Carey put the spinner-heavy Indian bowling attack under pressure.
Be it against Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand, India have been ruthless in the execution of their bowling plans. But Australia, despite playing in totally different conditions to what they did in Pakistan, quickly adapted to the pitch. With the early wickets of Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma, they even got early breakthroughs before chase-master Kohli settled the nerves and played a lovely innings.
Sunday’s final will be an opportunity for India to end their 50-over ICC trophy drought, dating back to the 2013 Champions Trophy. For head coach Gautam Gambhir its a chance to establish his credentials with the national team following IPL success.
Speaking to the media shortly after India’s win against Australia, Gambhir said the campaign so far has been flawless.
“You used a very good word that we played ‘flawlessly’. I think yes we did but we still have one more game to go. We know that we are a good one-day side and the most important thing is the way we’ve actually played throughout this competition. The hunger, the commitment, and the eagerness to try and do something special for the country is always there in the dressing room,” Gambhir said.
In his first trip as head coach to Sri Lanka, where the ODIs were played on similar sluggish tracks, Indian batsmen struggled to chase targets between 230-250. Though they had managed good starts back then in the powerplay, in the middle-overs they struggled to keep the scoreboard moving without taking risks. Over here, Indian batsmen have adapted well, rotating the strike and being able to produce risk-free cricket. With the ball, in each of the four outings they have managed to take all 10 wickets. And even on the field, they have hardly put a foot wrong.
Though he called it flawless, Gambhir said India haven’t managed to tick all boxes as far as he is concerned. “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. There’s always something to improve, be it in batting, fielding, or bowling. And we still haven’t played a perfect game. We still have one more game to go. Hopefully we can play a perfect game,” Gambhir said.
Since taking over, Gambhir has rejigged the batting order with Axar Patel being the favoured batsman at No.5 followed by KL Rahul. And before the Champions Trophy, during the series against England, Shreyas Iyer had revealed that he wasn’t even a sure starter, an indication that Gambhir was looking for other options.
In T20Is India have brought a great deal of flexibility to the batting order, which includes a good mix of left and right-handed batsmen, but in ODIs the story is totally different. With Rishabh Pant not being the first-choice wicketkeeper, India have just two left-handed batsmen in the top 7 and since the top four are all right-handers, Gambhir has chosen to have Axar at No.5 with Rahul now batting one position below.
Gambhir said the reason behind the move was to see the impact a batsman has on a particular spot. “You know in a sport like cricket and in a team sport, numbers don’t matter, batting positions don’t matter, it’s the impact that matters. You should only be thinking of picking yourself in the playing 11, and whatever is needed you should do it for the team. And KL has done that and KL has done that really happily and he’s done that really well at number six as well,” he said.