Gautam Gambhir has finally succeeded as Team India’s coach in an ICC tournament. The sub-continent nation lifted the Champions Trophy for the third time after going past New Zealand’s challenge in Dubai. The four-wicket victory came after tense moments, and some gusty effort from KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya was needed to deny the Kiwis.
Gambhir was miffed with the dismissals of Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel, who played for the gallery and lost their wickets. The pitches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium were not flat and gave a lot of assistance to spinners.
Even the pacers enjoyed bowling in this part of the world. On the other hand, the surfaces in Pakistan were batting paradise, and the willow holders were able to hit hundreds, with teams posting big totals.
India were accused of getting an advantage over the other rivals by playing all their matches in Dubai. Gambhir denied it and mentioned that his batters would have loved to bat on pitches in Pakistan.
“Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma performed well on tough pitches in Dubai. Indian batters would have liked to bat on Pakistan pitches. I feel a batter should bat where he can make an impact and the team management will decide it and not the player,” he said on Star Sports.
Gautam also praised Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and Mohammed Shami. “Kuldeep, Varun, and Shami contributed to the successful campaign. It was one of the tournaments where everyone gave their best,” he added.