DUBAI: India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir was true to his character as he appeared to be in a fiery mood at the press conference following India’s four-wicket victory over Australia at the Dubai International Stadium in the semifinal of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy.
Asked about how India’s superstar Virat Kohli batter conquered his weakness against leg-spinners to pull off another fabulous run chase-he scored 84 against an Australia attack that had leggies Adam Zampa and Tanveer Sangha – Gambhir snapped back at the journalist. He asserted that a batter who has played three 300 ODIs is likely to get out to a particular type of bowler or some spinners.
“Buddy, when you play 300 games, you will end up getting out to some of the spinners. So that’s okay, he’s got a hundred in this competition, he’s got an 80 in this competition. When you’ve got runs in this competition, you will eventually get out to some kind of a bowler. So, rather than dissecting and bisecting that he’s got out to leg spin. I think when you play 300 ODIs you will eventually get out to a certain kind of bowler and that’s okay,” said Gambhir.
For the record, Kohli has been dismissed 77 times by the spinners in his ODI career, and averages 44.58, against an overall average of 58.11 in this format. He has succumbed to the leg-spinners in recent times-England leggie Adil Rashid has dismissed him five times in ODIs.
Firing back at some critics for pointing out the obvious advantage that Team India has enjoyed while playing all their matches in the tournament at one venue in Dubai, Gambhir referred to them as “perpetual cribbers” and stated that he didn’t care about what was being said outside the Team India dressing room.
Gambhir was obviously taking an aim at former England captains Nasser Hussain and Mike Atherton, who discussed at length whether India playing at a single venue in the ICC Champions Trophy was giving India an “undeniable advantage.” A few days back, South African batsman Rassie van der Dussen too had pointed out to India’s advantage while talking to reporters in Karachi.
India is the only team stationed at a single city in the tournament, while the other teams have shuffled between three cities in Pakistan and Dubai. Like the Indian team’s captain Rohit Sharma, Gambhir too argued that Dubai was as neutral a venue for India as it was for any other team.
“It is as much a neutral venue for us as it is for any team in this tournament. I don’t remember the last tournament we played here in this stadium. The plan was to pick two front-line spinners wherever we played, because the tournament is in the subcontinent. This is the first match where two front-line spinners are playing,” Gautam Gambhir said about his team combination for the Champions Trophy.
The India head coach claimed that the conditions at the ICC Academy and at the DICS are distinct. “What undue advantage? We are practising at the ICC Academy. The conditions there and at the Dubai International Stadium are completely different. There’s a huge difference between the two wickets. Some people are perpetual cribbers, man. They’ve got to grow up,” he blasted off.
‘My job is to be honest to 140 crore Indians and people in dressing room’
Responding to the criticism of the team management and the selection panel after the Test series defeats at home against New Zealand and then away to Australia, where India struggled against both spin and pace, Gambhir said that he did not care about the criticism as long as he was honest in his job to the 140 crore Indians and his team.
“I don’t care about it. Honestly. My job is to be honest to 140 crore Indians and to the people in that dressing room. I don’t care what people talk about, how they talk about it, whether they have agendas. I really don’t care about it. If I am honest to my job, that is all that matters. When you talk about the spin combinations, there are three all-rounders among those five spinners. People keep forgetting about them. And those three all-rounders are all quality all-rounders. We have picked only two front-line spinners in the entire squad, and that’s okay in a 15-member squad,” Gambhir said.
India played a combination of four spinners in their last two matches-against New Zealand and then Australia in the semifinal as well. The 2023 ODI World Cup finalists bowled Australia out for 264, and later chased down with four wickets to spare.
