Cricket is not just a game but an emotion for Indians and the recent games played in Tests, ODIs and T20s by the Indian Cricket team under the head coach Gautam Gambhir, this emotion has cause a lot of mood swings like winning 17 consecutive T20 series at home against big names like England, Australia, South Africa etc setting an unprecedented record but also losing ODIs against Australia and even Sri Lanka and the recent performance in test championship too where we did not even qualify for the world cup, has been a ride of happiness and sadness.
Did We Get What We Expected
Before Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid was the coach of Indian Cricket Team and his era was very successful like winning a lot of bilateral series and the biggest, winning the T20 World Cup 2024, and apart from these we also have some big losses like World Test Championship 2023, and World Cup 2023 (winning percentage 72.41% in ICC event), so Gautam Gambhir was expected to give us some big titles at the international level. But we saw a big dip in the starting itself like when we lost some bilateral series like with Sri Lanka and Australia but the biggest lost as a cricket fan is when we lost the bilateral test series against Australia “The Border-Gavaskar Trophy” (which we lost after 10 years).
But the recent performance against England in both T20 and ODI, is a ray of hope for the Indian Cricket fans before the Champions Trophy 2025, as we won the T20 series by 4-1 and white washed in ODI by 3-0.
Elephant in the Room "ICC Champions Trophy"
The ICC Champions Trophy is starting on 19 February 2025 and the host nation is Pakistan and amid all the controversies like the unprepared cricket grounds and India is not going to Pakistan but playing all its matches in Dubai (the reason stated was the safety of the players), its finally happening and for Gautam Gambhir and team it’s the best chance to live up to the expectations as Gambhir is known for his expertise in mentoring in T20s like in the 1st year of his mentorship Kolkata Knight Riders won the IPL 2024, so Gautam Gambhir got the perfect opportunity at the perfect time, but did he form the best team available?
Squad of Indian Cricket Team
Rohit Sharma (c), Shubham Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sunder, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakaravarthy.
Means we are not going with, Jasprit Bumrah (Injured), Mohd. Siraj (non-travelling substitute) and Yashasvi Jaiswal(non-travelling substitute)
Reports say, Gambhir wanted a team that can bat till number 8 so he got Washington Sunder and Harshit Rana in place of Mohd. Siraj, (someone who has tons of experience at the international level) while critics says if you need batting till number 8, you need better batsman. This is a good strategy if you are chasing a larger total but if you are batting first then this might backfire.
So whether this team and this planning is a mistake or a masterstroke only time will tell and only then can we see where the mood of the cricket lover swings.
And of course ALL THE BEST Team India.
Written by Jai Vardhan Singh
