Sunil Gavaskar pulls up Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill ahead of Champions Trophy final: '...clearly, there's a shortcoming'
India's opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill have lasted longer than five overs just once in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
India have been dominant in the 2025 Champions Trophy and yet, they haven't really performed to their full potential due to a couple of key shortcomings, former captain and batting great Sunil Gavaskar has said. While Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer's sublime form in the tournament has made their batting department highly efficient, Gavaskar feels that India would be helped if openers Shubman Gill and captain Rohit Sharma can get them better starts.
“They haven't (played to their maximum potential) 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,” said Gavaskar on India Today. Rohit and Gill's opening partnerships has lasted more than five overs just once in the entire tournament and that was when they put up a stand of 69 runs in the first nine overs.
Gavaskar also pointed out drawbacks with the bowling. While India took as many as five wickets in the first nine overs of their opening match against Bangladesh, their returns with the ball in the first powerplay haven't been too impressive since then. Moreover, India have often ended up conceding huge partnerships in the middle overs. "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."
“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,” said Gavaskar.
No need to change bowling combination now
India had started off with three pacers and as many spinners. However, Varun Chakravarthy came as a fourth spinner in their final group game against New Zealand and ended up winning player of the match for his efforts. He put in another stellar performance against Australia and Gavaskar feels that India should now stick to this combination in the final, which will also be against New Zealand on Sunday.
"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.
