AHMEDABAD: India coach Gautam Gambhir admitted that Varun Chakravarthy was included in the Champions Trophy because of his ability to challenge the opposition batters through the middle-overs. Chakravarthy, who only made his 50-over debut at Cuttack, was left out of the third ODI as a precautionary measure (sore calf). Gambhir, who addressed the press following the end of the three-match ODI series against England, also opened up on Yashasvi Jaiswal not featuring in the 15 for the Champions Trophy. Excerpts:
On Chakravarthy’s inclusion
Look, the only reason was because we wanted another wicket-taking option in the middle [overs]. And we know what Varun brings to the table, we know that Varun can be a massive threat. And with a lot of teams who haven’t played him, he could be an x-factor as well. I’m not going to say that he’s going to start and all that stuff, but it’s always good to have a strong bowling line-up because we know that if he can actually get those wickets in the middle, it’s always going to be an advantage. And that was one of the reasons. Otherwise, we know that Yashasvi (Jaiswal) has got a fabulous future ahead. It’s just that we could only pick 15.
On Shreyas Iyer and how he figures in the scheme of things
He wasn’t supposed to be benched throughout the series (after his 50 in the first match, Shreyas had said he wasn’t supposed to play the game). We wanted to give Yashasvi (Jaiswal) a go in the first game and see what he can bring to the table because he was in really good form in Australia… we always knew that Shreyas is going to be an important player for us. What he’s done at No. 4… be it at the World Cup… forget about the World Cup, he’s just an important player. So sometimes when you’ve only got three games, you want to try and rotate your squad as well.
On the left-right combo
That’s the way cricket is meant to be played. I know a lot of people talk about it, but that’s the way we’ve got to play the game and that’s the way cricket should be played. It’s not about the batting order. It’s about who can create what impact. If you have the option of putting a quality left-hander in the middle, why won’t you do that? Why would you want to have top five as right-handers? We don’t look at averages and stats and all that stuff. We look at who can deliver more at that number. And Axar (Patel) has done fabulously well. Both the games he got the opportunity, he delivered for us.
