Sunil Gavaskar feels that India has room for improvement despite their unbeaten run in the Champions Trophy 2025 and their upcoming final against New Zealand on Sunday, March 9. While India has secured four wins in Dubai so far, he believes the team isn’t performing at its full potential.
In an interview with India Today, Gavaskar expressed concerns about the inconsistencies of openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill in recent games. He also noted that the new ball bowlers need to make a greater impact by taking more wickets in the first 10 overs.
Furthermore, he pointed out that although the team has been successful in limiting runs during the middle overs, they haven’t been able to claim many wickets during this period. Gavaskar is confident that by improving in these areas, India could further strengthen their chances of clinching the title.
“They haven’t 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. Even with the new ball, you might want to 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.
Stick with same XI: Gavaskar ahead of Champions Trophy final
Gavaskar also said that India shouldn’t make any changes to their lineup and go with 4 spinners in the final.
“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.
