Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has highlighted the areas of concern for the Indian team before the final clash of the Champions Trophy against New Zealand. Gavaskar noted that Indian openers – Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill – haven’t given a solid start to the team.
Rohit has scored 104 runs in four matches at an average of 26, with the highest score of 41. Gill, who is the number one batter in the ICC ODI rankings, scored a fine century in the opening game against Bangladesh, and then scored a decent knock of 46 runs against Pakistan. But the youngster hasn’t delivered in the last two matches against New Zealand and Australia.
Furthermore, the former Indian captain said the pacers haven’t got two-three wickets in the Powerplay overs whereas the spinners haven’t also provided regular breakthroughs in the middle phase.
Sunil Gavaskar said on India Today, “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.”
He added, “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.”
The Little Master wants India to play with the same final XI and backed them to play four spinners in the team. Varun Chakravarthy had bagged 5-42 against New Zealand in the group stage contest.
“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.
India will take on New Zealand in the summit clash of the Champions Trophy at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.
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