CT 2025: Gautam Gambhir Explains Why Batting Positions Don't Matter In This Indian Team

Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir discarded the fact that he selects the senior men’s team with batting positions in mind. In fact, he said that batting positions don’t matter as long as the best playing 11 is picked. 

Answering a question on KL Rahul being shifted in the batting order, Gambhir, while speaking in the post-match press conference on March 4 (Tuesday), after India’s win over Australia to reach the Champions Trophy 2025 final, said, “You know in a sport like cricket and in a team sport, numbers don't matter, batting positions don't matter, it's the impact that matters.”

“You should only think of picking yourself in the playing 11 and rest whatever is needed of you to do it for the team. You should be happily doing it and KL has done that and KL has done that really happily, and he's done that really well at number six as well,” added the former India cricketer. 

Apart from Rahul, Axar Patel’s batting position has also been debated as to how is batting ahead of Rahul and Hardik Pandya. Gambhir answered that as well, saying that he always has faith in Axar to express himself. 

“I think he's a quality player, and it is important. We're going to keep giving him that opportunity at number five so that he can keep performing, and more importantly, keep expressing and keep showing his talent to the world. And he's made a reasonable number of contributions. It is not about individuals, it's about what we want as a team, and we'll continue to do that,” said the 43-year-old. 

Both Rahul (42* off 34 balls) and Axar (27 off 30 balls) made important contributions in India's win against Australia. 

After the four-wicket win in the semi-final. India will have four days time to prepare for the final in Dubai on 9th March. They will play the winner of the second semi-final between New Zealand and South Africa.