Sunil Gavaskar has claimed that no one should be taking New Zealand for granted in the Champions Trophy final clash against India on March 9. Gavaskar feels that the clash on Sunday will be different from their previous clash during the Group stages.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome, I am your host for the day, Vikrant Gupta, with me as usual the dapper
00:17businessman in Gavaskar, we are in Dubai and incidentally sunny by this morning team New
00:23Zealand has also landed in Dubai, ahead of the Champions Trophy final which is going
00:27to be played on Sunday and it's a repeat of the 2000 Champions Trophy final, it's been
00:3425 years since, a surprise that India and New Zealand have just played twice in the
00:40Champions Trophy, New Zealand beat India in that finals, India beat New Zealand last Sunday,
00:46the finals sunny by is something that the Indians need to clear now because we lost
00:52the one day World Cup in India, we lost in the finals and this is the third straight
00:56finals that the Indians are making in the ICC trophies, but the cup, the 50 over cup,
01:03we have been waiting for that for a good 12 years now. Yes, it's not going to be easy
01:09looking at the way New Zealand played the semi-final against South Africa, against a
01:13good strong South African attack for them to score 362, just tells you the depth of
01:19their batting, I know that in the last 8 overs they scored more than 100 runs, 9 overs they
01:25scored 113 runs, last 9 overs, it actually tells you that they have got explosive players,
01:31at the top of the order they have got correct, classically correct as well as innovative
01:36players in Rachid Ravindra and Kane Williamson very very experienced, Will Young didn't get
01:42too many runs, Latham didn't get too many runs in the semis and so India will have its
01:48task cut out. Is it deck to deck Sunny Bhai or would you say that the conditions will
01:52also favour India, India beat New Zealand in the last league game and the fact that
01:57the Indians have been playing here for more than 2 weeks now, does that also favour India?
02:02It does favour India to an extent but not as much as is being made out, the way that
02:09the teams that actually do well are the teams that go about their business without looking
02:14at the externals, those who keep on looking at the externals straight away are looking
02:19for an excuse in case they do not do well. Have you heard a little any peep from anybody
02:27in New Zealand, nothing at all, they had to rush after last Sunday's game to Pakistan
02:33to play, they just got a day of practice maybe but they went and they smashed it in 62 against
02:39South Africa, South Africa which was based in Pakistan and South Africa were also complaining
02:44about it. So the teams that do not complain, just focus on their game are the ones that
02:49are doing well. And ultimately it's a 100 over game, you've got to win the battle of
02:54a bat and a ball, teams who do well will always do well in all the conditions, it's just that
03:01maybe there are factors alluding to the fact that India will be strong favourites. Not
03:09just 3, there are several factors which would obviously be of significant importance before
03:17the game, it's just that the finals, if the teams are 1 and 2, nothing much separates
03:24the two. New Zealand have been, if not the best, the second best team in this Champions
03:29Trophy. Certainly the way they've played, they beat Pakistan and Pakistan comfortably,
03:34so clearly I think they lost to India fine, but they have shown a variety in their attack,
03:41they have shown depth in their batting, which is the reason why they are here, because they've
03:45been able to recover also from early setbacks and still put up a good total, a fighting
03:50total and they'll have learnt plenty from last Sunday's game against India for sure,
03:54no question about it. They're a team that goes about their business very quietly, they're
04:00very smart cricketers and therefore, like I said, nobody, just because India beat Australia
04:07in the semi-final, in a pretty tight game, nobody should take it for granted that on
04:13Sunday it's going to be the same. New Zealand will be a very, very tough opponent.
04:19And again, there would obviously be four squares in any cricket game, your batting versus their
04:25bowling, your bowling versus their batting. So, what factors do you think would favour
04:31India? Is it the spinners, is it Mohammad Shami, or is it the depth in your batting?
04:37All three actually, but more I think it'll be, to contain the New Zealand batting, it'll
04:41have to be the spinner type, the middle overs. So in the middle overs is where I think India
04:46has struggled a little bit, but the spinners, even if they don't take wickets, if they can
04:50choke the runs, they'll have done a wonderful job and that's what they've been doing. Chakravorty
04:54has been taking wickets, Jadeja and Akshat Patel have been bowling tight, not giving
04:58away sixes and boundaries easily. So that is going to be the key, those middle overs,
05:03say from the 10th to the 35th over, those 25-30 over runs.
05:08And psychologically, the very fact that Varun Chakravorty played against New Zealand the
05:12first time in this Champions League, he picked up five semi-finals. India, it wasn't really
05:18a big total, but India defended that. India won by 45 runs. So how much of a psychological
05:24edge is that for Varun versus the Kiwi batsmen?
05:27It will be, it will be a psychological edge because they will, not knowing which way the
05:32ball is going to turn, will play a little bit more watchfully. If, for example, they
05:37find that the finger spinners, Jadeja and Akshat Patel are not getting any grip, then
05:44you know, they can, they can go down the pitch knowing that look, their line and their lengths
05:48are pretty similar. They can go to look and attack them because they're not worried about
05:52being outstumped or inside edging the ball or with the turn, you know, having an issue.
05:57They're not worried about that. So with Chakravorty, there's always a which way the ball is going
06:01to turn. And Kuldeep. And Kuldeep as well. So you might actually think that you might
06:05have a situation where they might say, okay, let's knock them for ones and twos. But that's
06:09not a problem for India. It's when the sixers as well as the ones and twos come in the same
06:13over, that is when there's a problem.
06:15Do you think, Sunny Bhai, India's played to their maximum potential. Is India operating
06:21on 100% or is it that 70%, 80%, 90% has given you good results as well?
06:29Yes, they haven't. Because when you look at the openers, they haven't really given the
06:34Indian team the kind of start that they wanted. That has not happened. So clearly, I think
06:39there's a shortcoming over there. Even with the new ball, you know, you might want to
06:44in the first 10 overs, you would definitely want to take about two wickets or three wickets.
06:48That's also not been quite happening. In the middle overs, we've not been getting wickets
06:52although the runs have not been, you know, flowing. So those are areas that, you know,
06:57you get better in those areas, the better the chances of going on to win the game.
07:02Well, the two teams will be practicing tomorrow in Dubai. The Kiwis have just come in. India
07:08has opted to rest for the day. It was a well-fought victory over Australia. But the moment the
07:15Indians and the Kiwis practice tomorrow, you will probably have a sense of their game
07:20plan for the final. Even though, Sunny Bhai, the 11 for India or the strategy for India
07:26may not change. I think it is going to be four spinners. It has to be. It has to be.
07:31Why change now? It's shown, Chakravarthy's inclusion, Kuldeep's inclusion has shown how
07:36effective they can be. And also wicket-taking bowlers, the best dot ball in limited-dose
07:41wicket or any format of the game is a wicket dot ball. So they've been doing that. So there
07:46should be no change at all in the Indian lineup. Well, like I said, India have made it to the
07:51finals several times in Champions Trophy, in other ICC tournaments as well. It's just
07:57that since 2013, India has just won once. But that was last year. And if India do win
08:03now, obviously, you will have to say that the monkey is off India's back.
08:10So anyway, that had been a mental barrier. That had been the mental barrier. You would
08:14make it to the finals, yet not win it. Having done that last year in the T20s, is that still
08:20a factor or the monkey is really off India's back now? Well, once you know how to win a
08:25final, you obviously are better prepared for the next final. Look, no final is ever going
08:30to be easy. Very seldom does it happen in sport that the champion is such a champion
08:35that he completely wipes the floor of the opposition. Doesn't happen. And certainly
08:39not in cricket. And not on the kind of surface that the final is going to be played on. But
08:45just having won a title, a world title, less than a year ago, means that this Indian team
08:51is really high as far as knowing how to go about, you know, whatever little stumble that
08:58there might be there. How to recover from the stumble will be something that they'll
09:03be aware of. They'll also know that New Zealand have reached finals, but they haven't won.
09:08So I think they won in 2000 against India in Nairobi. And the WTC finals. WTC finals.
09:16But that's another format altogether. And they were also the bogey team for India. And
09:20the fact that India beat them here, and India beat them twice in the 23 World Cup, means
09:26that that monkey is also off our back. Definitely. I think they know how to beat New Zealand.
09:31But again, cricket is a funny game. Things can go wrong in a matter of a couple of overs
09:36or four or five overs. But two of the best teams vying for that champion's trophy.
09:41Coverage continues on The India Today.