India head coach Gautam Gambhir attended the post-match press conference after the Men in Blue entered the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, with a 4-wicket over Australia in Dubai on March 4.
After winning the toss, Australia posted 264 runs with Steve Smith making 73 and Alex Carey scoring 61 runs. Mohammad Shami was the star bowler for India with three wickets. In response, Virat Kohli shepherded the chase with 84 runs while Shreyas Iyer made 45 and KL Rahul finished the game with 42* as India won by 4 wickets.
Even as Rohit Sharma led India to the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 final, questions over his future continue to plague fans, commentators, and everyone involved in the game.
As India's head coach Gautam Gambhir attended the post-match news conference, he was asked for his honest opinion on how long Rohit can play for the national team after the Champions Trophy. Gambhir dodged the topic and instead praised the captain for establishing the appropriate tempo from the start.
While Gambhir did not reveal much about Rohit's international future, he did explain that the Hitman is evaluated based on his 'impact' rather than his 'statistics'.
While the head coach's hesitation to guarantee Rohit's future ahead of the Champions Trophy final is understandable, the fact that he entirely avoided the subject may indicate that something is already being prepared.
"Tell me about Rohit, the form he's in, how much cricket do you think he'll still play?" the journo asked.
"Look, the final of the Champions Trophy is now coming up. What can I say before that? If your captain bats with such a tempo, it just gives a very good signal to the dressing room that we want to be absolutely fearless and courageous. You evaluate from the runs; we evaluate from the impact. That's the difference. You evaluate from the stats; we evaluate from the impact. As journalists, as experts, you only look at numbers and averages. But as a coach, as a team, we don't look at numbers or averages. If the captain puts up his hand first, then there is nothing better than that for the dressing room," Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.
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Rohit shattered a massive record and etched his name in the record books by becoming the first captain in the history of cricket to reach the finals of all ICC tournaments. In a span of three years, India has entered the finals of every ICC tournament, making him the first skipper to achieve the feat.
He has reached the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, ICC Cricket World Cup 2023, ICC World Test Championship 2023, and the ICC Champions Trophy, having won the T20 WC 2024 out of these.
(ANI inputs)
