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As far as campaigns go, this was pretty flawless. If we must nitpick, 11 catches of varying degrees of difficulty were put down over the five matches but otherwise, India were on top of their game, taming four opponents on four different surfaces in five matches at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium with conviction and comfort.
After the Champions Trophy was sealed and secured, a delighted Rohit Sharma crooned, “There are some matches where you win on individual brilliance. But to win a tournament, it’s very important for all the players to perform together.”
The skipper couldn’t have been more on target.
He wasn’t the difference between the sides in Sunday’s final against New Zealand, but it was his pyrotechnics at the start and his guiding hand after the Powerplay that allowed the middle-order to tide over a testing phase without having to worry about a steeply climbing required rate. Rohit was the Player of the Final for his 76, the same tally that had netted Virat Kohli a similar honour in the final of the T20 World Cup in June. Big games, big players and all that.
‘Unsung hero’ Shreyas Iyer
India had two players who topped 200 runs, Kohli and ‘unsung hero’ (as Rohit called him) Shreyas Iyer. Shubman Gill weighed in with 188, the captain made 180. KL Rahul, thrice not out, finished with the staggering average of 140, Axar Patel’s 109 runs at No. 5 were crucial and Hardik Pandya blasted six sixes and seven fours in 93 balls, marrying an average of 24.75 with a strike-rate of 106.45, fairly staggering given that he mostly batted at No. 7 and came in under pressure, against a soft, ageing ball on a slowing, wearing surface.
Also Read: “India understood the conditions in Dubai perfectly”: New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner
India players celebrate on the podium with the ICC Champions Trophy in Dubai on Sunday. Pic/Getty Images
Paints a comprehensive, pretty picture of an in-form batting line-up well aware of its roles and responsibilities, doesn’t it?
The batters were complemented, sometimes overshadowed (how often does that happen in limited-overs cricket?) by a bowling unit that somehow managed to overcome the seemingly irreparable damage caused by Jasprit Bumrah’s unavailability. Despite leaking runs, Mohammed Shami finished with nine wickets, the joint second highest in the tournament along with Varun Chakravarthy and only one behind Matt Henry.
Chakravarthy, a belated entrant, was the most incisive of the four spinners India used in tandem in their last three games, left-arm finger spinners Axar and Ravindra Jadeja were the most economical (both went at 4.35 an over) and Kuldeep Yadav came good in the match that mattered, with the wickets of the batters that mattered the most — Rachin Ravindra and Kane Williamson. Harshit Rana had to be sacrificed at the altar of team balance but in his two appearances, he went at only 3.97 runs an over, the second best among bowlers who sent down 90 balls or more.
Just look at how many names we have had to invoke. Of how many who drove the campaign, of how many who stepped in when the situation so demanded and got the job done.
Smart training methods
In three weeks, India played only five matches; long gaps between games could have taken the edge away but by devising smart training methods, the Gautam Gambhir-led coaching group negated that potentially disastrous development. The power of the collective has seldom been more in evidence.
12
No. of years since India last won the Champions Trophy
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