The Indian think tank is currently performing a difficult balancing act to construct the team around a new group of players without totally severing links with the old guard. In that regard, head coach Gautam Gambhir, who is in charge of this procedure, was thrilled to see both sides making valuable contributions.
In the ODIs against South Africa, Virat Kohli emerged player of the series with two hundreds and a fifty, lending strength to the senior team and quickly returning to his amazing heights from 2015 onwards.
To highlight his deft touch, Rohit Sharma treated himself to a few fifties. In order to keep the ODI team in top shape, Gambhir hoped the two mainstays will keep producing such performances.
“Look, they’re quality players. I’ve said it many times as well that they’re world-class players. They are quality players in this format and their experience is really important in the dressing room,” said Gambhir at the press meet after India beat SA by nine wickets to bag the one-day series 2-1.
“They’re doing what they do. They’ve been doing it for such a long time for Indian cricket. Hopefully, they can continue doing the same, which is always going to be important come the white ball format and the 50-over format,” he added.
India had an opportunity to test the skill sets of several young tyros because of the rest to seniors Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj and the injury-related absences of Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.
The development of Harshit Rana as a bowling all-rounder especially pleased Gambhir.
“That’s one of the reasons why we are trying to probably develop someone like Harshit, who can actually bat at No. 8 and contribute with a bat.
“That’s how we need to find the balance, because come South Africa in two years’ time (2027 ODI WC), we would be needing three proper seamers as well. And if he can continue to develop as a bowling allrounder, it’s going to give us a massive boost,” he said.
The performances of seamers Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna during the series also impressed Gambhir.
“With Jaspreet Bumrah coming back and what we saw of Arshdeep, Prasidh and Harshit in this series was incredible because all these three guys do not have a lot of experience, especially in 50-over format. They’ve hardly played, what, less than 15 ODIs. But they’ve done a fabulous job,” he said.
