India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir hopes Shreyas Iyer takes his good form to the ICC Champions Trophy and backed him as an integral part of the team’s ODI set-up.
Iyer’s post-match comment after the first ODI against England had sparked controversy when he mentioned that his inclusion in the team was possible only because Virat Kohli was unavailable due to a knee injury.
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It led to speculation that Iyer could be left out of the last two ODIs to accommodate Kohli. However, he remained in the playing XI and performed admirably.
India whitewashed England 3-0, with Iyer consistently delivering the goods. He scored an aggressive 59 off 36 balls in the first match at Nagpur when India were struggling at 19 for 2 while chasing 249. He continued his good form with scores of 44 and 78 in the subsequent two matches.
“He wasn’t supposed to be benched throughout the series. 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,” Gambhir said after the third and final match on Wednesday.
“I know that you can’t judge someone (Jaiswal) by one innings. But we always knew that Shreyas was going to be an important player for us. Sometimes when you’ve only got three games, you want to try and rotate your squad as well.”
The Champions Trophy begins on February 19 in Pakistan, while India will play all their matches in Dubai as an agreement between the Pakistan Cricket Board, International Cricket Council and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
India open their campaign with their first match in Group A against Bangladesh on February 20.
“When you’ve got the Champions Trophy around the corner, you want to try and maximise these three games and try and give everyone an opportunity. But Shreyas was always in the scheme of things (and it is) good that he played all the three games,” Gambhir concluded.
