Head coach Gautam Gambir didn't mince his words while reacting to the criticism he has faced over the selection of certain players and the batting order lineup after India breezed past Australia to confirm their seat in the final of the ongoing Champions Trophy.
Fans have criticized Gambhir and his management for preferring KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant as the first-choice wicketkeeper batter and for fast-tracking young gun Harshit Rana.
After India thrashed Australia in the semifinals and booked its place for the Champions Trophy final on Sunday, the Indian head coach was asked about the backlash he has faced over certain decisions. Gambhir replied simply to his doubters and critics: he "doesn't care about it.""I don't care about it. I don't even care about it, honestly. My job is to be honest to 140 crore Indians and to my players in the dressing room. I don't care what people say about it, how they talk about it, whether they've got agendas, whether they've not got agendas, I don't even care about it. If I'm honest about my job, that is all that matters, and I can sleep in peace," Gambhir said at the post-match press conference on Tuesday night.
Apart from the selection of players, Axar Patel's promotion to the number five spot and the success he has reaped have been the talk of the town in the ongoing marquee event.
In the sem-finals against Australia, Axar offered stability with his composed 27(30) featuring a sole boundary and as many towering maximum. Overall he has thrived in his new role in the tournament, amassing 69 runs in two matches.
Gambhir outlined the reason behind shuffling the batting order and revealed that Axar's number five role allows him to express himself and exhibit his talent to the world.
"We have answered it before that we don't care what people say. I think he's a quality player, and it is important. This is how cricket is meant to be played, and this is how we will play the sport. This is how we will continue playing the sport. We know the quality and ability Axar has, and 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," he said.
"And he's made a reasonable amount of contributions since he started batting at number five. And you guys, people can keep talking about it, about making Axar bat at number five. But yes, that's where it is very important, and it is not about individuals; it's about what we want as a team, and we'll continue to do that," he added.
Gambhir went on to offer clarity on sending KL Rahul at number six instead of a spot higher in the order. For the former southpaw, sending Rahul lower in the order adds more depth to batting, allowing India to play the game the way they want to.
"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 be thinking 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. People keep talking about it, I don't know for how long they've been talking about it, why we've pushed KL at number six," Gambhir said.
"Just we feel that he gives us more depth, and that is how we want to play the game. And the conversations which I've had with him or the conversations which I've had with everyone is exactly the same that in a team sport, especially in cricket and in this format, we are not going to talk about batting positions. We're going to talk about how can we create that impact and what is needed of the team. We'll continue doing that," he added. (Agency)