India played in the T20 World Cup 2024, which saw them as the most successful team, as they were crowned champions of the world. However, the major change that India cricket faced was that Rahul Dravid stepped down from the position of Team India Head Coach and was replaced by the likes of veteran Indian batter and ex-KKR mentor Gautam Gambhir, who led them to a title triumph in the last IPL.
Gambhir was highly anticipated for his tactical brilliance, and it was expected that under his guidance India could have excelled and the team’s standards would rise only under him. With the Champions Trophy in sight, it would be one of Gambhir’s first biggest ICC breakouts.
India had won the Champions Trophy back in 2013 under skipper MS Dhoni after a shared cup with Sri Lanka in 2002 under Sourav Ganguly. Next in their title defense, in 2017, India fell short to arch-rivals Pakistan, which seemed like a major upset for the team. After 7-long years, the tournament is being held by the ICC.
India recently concluded a series against the Lankan Lions, where despite early success under coach Gambhir in the T20I series, the team faced a deep crisis in the ODI series as India faced a humiliating defeat at the hands of the host for a 2-0 series defeat, which ended Sri Lanka’s win over India in a bilateral after 27 long years.
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Gambhir’s change of tactics that might lead them to Champions Trophy success:
A struggling middle-order and disastrous performance against Spin
India is facing a deep crisis in the middle order, as all their batters have performed unconvincingly. The series saw the likes of all great and finest Indian batters perform very weakly for India, as the likes of the great Virat Kohli failed in every match.
Kohli performed extremely badly, while World Cup campaigners KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, who had scored many runs for the Indian side in the Cricket World Cup 2023, failed to even score as many as 40 runs in the three games in the series.
India also missed the services of Pandya, their key all-rounder, while Pant also underperformed alongside all-rounder Dube. What change might Gambhir make?
Gambhir should probably give instructions to the middle-order batters to be more intentful, as they failed to score runs defensively owing to bat. So a change in intent and a more attacking self would be Gambhir’s change in advice.
Rohit Sharma should bat deep into the innings.
Gautam Gambhir should reverse Rahul Dravid’s initial tactics of letting Rohit bat with extreme potential up the order during the powerplay. Rohit Sharma, since being named the skipper, under Rahul Dravid, took charge of scoring quick runs for team India.
He excelled in giving India the best starts he could; with Rohit excelling, he added quick 40-50 runs for India in no time, as he mostly gave India a start of 70-80 runs in the powerplays.
Rohit was the only player who batted well for the Indians, as he scored a near 150+ runs with a blistering strike rate of above 140 for the Indians in the Lankan series. Every game saw Rohit produce wonders for them upfront, while after he got out, India found themselves tumbling.
Now, Indian coach Gambhir should be seen advising the Indian team skipper and the most experienced batter to bat a bit deep into the innings. The veteran, who was always relied upon by Team India for many runs as an opener, now should again score runs not only quickly but also give the Indian innings the semblance they need.
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Sharma should score runs quickly, but since he is their only in-form batter, he should be responsible enough to score runs towards the middle phases as well and give India’s innings the depth they are in search of.
India’s spin problems are to be addressed by Gambhir.
Gautam Gambhir was one of the finest players of spin during his playing days and yet remains one of those players from India’s golden age of stunning spin players. But what about the recent crisis with the Indian team? They faced humiliation with spinners continuously causing troubles to the side.
The Lankan pacers hardly picked a handful of wickets, while Wellalage, Hasaranga, Theekshana, Vandersay, and even part-timer Charith Asalanka struck several times to break the back of the Indian batting order. Likes of legendary Virat Kohli faced the biggest problems against spin in recent years.
Other than the opener Rohit Sharma, who takes on spinners very advantageously, Gambhir should train his players to use their feet against spinners, keeping their eyes on the ball while handling spin in a better fashion.
Especially with the Champions Trophy being held in Pakistan, even if India does not travel to the nation, their matches are highly likely to be held in Sri Lanka, with sight to Bangladesh’s recent condition. The Champions Trophy, if played on the Lankan tracks, can be a hurdle for India if such spinning tracks keep up in the ICC tournament.