By Karan Agrawal 
India marched into the final of the Champions Trophy courtesy of a convincing win over Australia in the first semi final played in Dubai. Bowling first after loosing the toss the Rohit Sharma led side restricted Australia to a chasable total of 264 following some disciplined bowling from the Indian bowlers in the backend of the Australian innings as the men in blue picked up the last six Australian wickets for 66 runs after the Steve Smith led side was looking to post a big score with four wickets down for 198 and 13 overs remaining in the innings. Mohammed Shami was the pick of the bowlers with figures 3 for 48 in 10 overs and was well supported by Varun Chakravarthy and Ravindra Jadeja, who picked up two wickets each, with Hardik and Axar also chipping in with one apiece. For Australia, it was their captain, Smith, who led from the front with a timely inning of 73 runs, with Alex Carey giving him good support from the other end by scoring a half-century and helping Australia post a challenging total of 264 runs.
The Chase
Chasing 265 runs to win India lost openers Shubman Gill and Rohit Sharma early and it was upto the experienced duo of Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer to bail India out of trouble in a tricky chase by adding 91 runs for the second wicket with Iyer playing a crucial knock of 45 runs and Kohli scoring yet another half century. Although Australia tried to get back in the game with the wicket of Iyer but timely partnerships between Kohli and Axar followed by another partnership between Kohli and Rahul ensured that India had no chance of loosing the match even after Kohli was dismissed for 84 in the 43rd over of the innings with India inching closer towards the victory.
The Concern
Although India reached the fourth consecutive final of an ICC event, there have been concerns over the form of Rohit Sharma, as the Indian captain hasn’t been able to score a half-century in the tournament so far. Reacting to this, head coach Gautam Gambhir said, “You evaluate from the runs; we evaluate from the impact. That’s the difference. You evaluate from the stats; we evaluate from the impact.” “Look, the final of the Champions Trophy is now coming up. What can I say before that? If your captain bats with such a tempo, it just gives a very good signal to the dressing room that we want to be absolutely fearless and courageous. As journalists, you only look at numbers and averages. But as a team, we don’t look at the numbers or averages. If the captain puts up his hand first, then there is nothing better than that for the dressing room.”
The Performance
Talking about the potential weakness of Virat Kohli against leg spin, Gambhir said, “When you play 300 (301) games, you will end up getting out to some of the spinners.” Gambhir further said, “I think he’s got a hundred in this competition, he’s got a ninety (84) in this competition, and eventually, when you’ve got runs in this competition, you will eventually get out to some kind of a bowler. When you’ve played 300 ODIs, you will eventually get out to certain kind of bowlers.”
The Support
There has been a lot of chatter about KL Rahul’s batting position in the ongoing Champions Trophy as the wicketkeeper batter has batted at number six in the last few matches, which, according to experts, is not an ideal position for Rahul. When asked about it, Gambhir said, “KL averages 50 in one-day cricket, that’s the answer.” “I don’t care about it (his selection calls being vindicated). My job is to be honest with 140 crore Indians and my players in the dressing room. I don’t care what people say about it, how they talk about it, whether they’ve got agendas,” and that’s okay, he added. “In a team sport, numbers don’t matter, batting positions don’t matter, it’s the impact that matters. KL has done really well at No. 6. We feel that he gives us more depth, and that is how we want to play the game. KL has done that really happily, and he’s done that really well at number six.”
The Conditions
Comfortably placed at 225/4 at one stage, India lost a couple of quick wickets at the backend of the innings, which made the chase a bit tricky before Hardik hit Zampa for two consecutive sixes to ease the pressure. When asked whether the game got a bit too close for the liking in the end, Gambhir said, “No, I don’t think so (it was close). I think it was very, very professional and the reason why I say that is because we had wickets in hand and that was the plan because we know that obviously wickets here in the second half can actually get a little slower. “In the last game, we batted first, and we thought that it was very important to have wickets in hand at the 40-over mark. And we actually planned the chase really, really well. Even if you see after 40 overs, we were only four down. We had two set batters in. So, we knew that the quality and depth we have, we were always under control.” India chased down the 265-run target in the 49th over, losing six wickets.
The Hunger
Gambhir was also of the opinion that team India is yet to play a perfect game. In the words of Gambhir, “See, in international sport, you want to keep improving. You don’t say that you’ve ticked all the boxes. There’s always room to improve – be it in batting, fielding, or bowling. And we still haven’t played the perfect game. We still have one more game to go. Hopefully, we can play a perfect game.”
The Praise
The Indian head coach also praised Mohammed Shami for the way he bowled against Australia. “He’s brilliant. He’s a world-class performer. He’s phenomenal in the way he trains, the way he practises, the amount of bowling he does in practice sessions. He prepares himself really well. And that’s why you see all those results. We keep talking about a lot of other people, but I think that he’s a phenomenal bowler, be it in red ball cricket or in 50-over format. He’s shown that by making a comeback after one and a half years,” he said.