Legendary Sunil Gavaskar has hailed India’s depth after they won the Champions Trophy triumph. India was able to go all the way in the eight-team tournament without the services of their gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah, who was ruled out with a back injury.
Bumrah suffered the injury in the fifth Test at Sydney on the Australian tour and could not bowl in the second innings. However, in his absence, the bowling battery of Mohammed Shami, Harshit Rana, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, and Varun Chakravarthy were able to deliver the goods.
On the other hand, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma scored 218 and 180 runs in the five matches of the tournament respectively.
Sunil Gavaskar wrote in his Mid-Day column, “The triumph in the Champions Trophy and that too without Bumrah, also emphasizes that nobody is indispensable in this game. In the past too, India has won without Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, but there’s not the slightest doubt that their presence in the team gives the team an even more invincible look.”
Gavaskar said it is good to see that many players have admitted India would have won anywhere irrespective of the conditions.
He further added, “It is good to see so many overseas cricketers now coming up and saying India would have won anyway wherever they played and not only because they were stationed in Dubai.”
The Little Master added that India’s Champions Trophy win was sweet after a disappointing home Test series loss against New Zealand and the Border-Gavaskar trophy loss against Australia.
“India’s win in the Champions Trophy was one sweet win, especially after the disappointing Test series loss to Australia a month or so earlier. For a team that had won the first Test of the series in such style to cave in and lose three out of the next four Test matches was not really a proper indication of the strength of the team,” said Gavaskar.
The Little Master noted that India depended heavily on the shoulders of Jasprit Bumrah in the Australia series. Bumrah bagged a total of 32 wickets in five Test matches at an average of 13.06 against the Aussies.
“Very seldom has a team depended on one individual like the Indians depended on Jasprit Bumrah in Australia and his absence from the bowling attack to defend the small target set by India tilted the scales Australia’s way and they won the final Test and with it the series. For the Indian team to bounce back the way they did with comprehensive wins in the ODI and T20 series against England that were played on the team’s return to India tells volumes of the talent that Indian cricket has.”
