Dubai, Feb 6: Not the one to be easily pleased, India head coach Gautam Gambhir said his team is still searching for that “perfect game” despite entering the Champions Trophy final with an all-win record and he is hopeful that it would come in the summit clash on Sunday.India trounced Australia by four wickets in the first semifinal here on Tuesday, with senior batter Virat Kohli making a well-paced 84.
“See, in international sport, you want to keep improving. You don’t say that you’ve ticked all the boxes. We still haven’t played a perfect game. I will never be satisfied with the performances,” Gambhir said in the post-match press conference.
Gambhir hoped that India can produce that “perfect game” in the Champions Trophy title clash on March 9.
We still have one more game to go. Hopefully, we can play a perfect game. We want to keep improving, we want to be ruthless on the cricket field but absolutely humble off the field as well,” he added.
India have taken some bold calls such as playing four spinners, promoting Axar Patel to No.5 and pushing down KL Rahul to No. 6 to suit the team’s needs.
It may look illogical from outside but for Gambhir they were minor pieces in the grand plans of keeping the players “out of the comfort zone” to extract the best out of them.
“I think cricket is all about being out of your comfort zone, and that is how you grow. If everyone is in their comfort zone, then there is stagnation. So, I believe, and you’ve seen the results. I know you guys will keep going back to 3-1 in Australia.
“But everyone in the dressing room is staying out of the comfort zone be it the coaching staff, be it the players and hopefully we continue to do what is important for Indian cricket,” he said.
At some stage in the near future, Gambhir will have to sit down with some senior players to study about their future plans.
But for now, the former Indian opener is focussing on the Champions Trophy final without losing sight of that important and impending discussion.
“I’m someone who tries to stay, as much as I can, in the present and at the moment, all I can say is that the entire focus is going to be on the game which is on the 9th.
And then obviously there’s a long-term vision, there’s a long-term plan as well but at the moment, it’s only the 9th but after the 9th we can sit down and plan,” he added.
Gambhir also lauded the side for the effortless manner in which it chased down a stiff 265-run target against the Aussies here.
“I think it was very professional and the reason why I say that is because we had wickets in hand and that was the plan because we know that obviously pitches here in the second half can actually get a little slower.
“We actually planned the chase really well. If you see after 40 overs, we were only four down. We had two set batters in. So, we knew that the kind of quality we have, the kind of depth we had, we were always in control,” he noted.