'His batting average in ODIs is 50' - Gautam Gambhir reveals reason for preferring KL Rahul over Rishabh Pant in India's Champions Trophy Playing XI

India earned an impressive four-wicket win in the semi-final 1 against Australia to qualify for Champions Trophy 2025 finale, which will be played on March 09 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai. Star batter Virat Kohli was the orchestrator behind India's solid win with his 84-run knock on Tuesday.

While the limelight of the entire game was stolen by Kohli, it was KL Rahul who made an important contribution in sailing the Men in Blue smoothly to the finishing line. Rahul chipped in with a small yet an impactful cameo of 42* in India's run-chase. The Karnataka batter also hit the last runs, hitting Glenn Maxwell over the long on region for a huge maximum.

Meanwhile, India head coach Gautam Gambhir was thoroughly impressed with Rahul's knock. Ahead of the game, the selectors and the Indian dugout were constantly criticized for picking the part-time wicketkeeper over Rishabh Pant. 

Gambhir was asked of his views on the criticism as well as the reason behind ignoring Rishabh Pant, who hasn't played a single game in the tournament so far, with only one game to go. The coach's response was backed by Rahul's better batting stats in One-Day Internationals over Pant, which automatically get him selected for a prized spot in the Playing XI.

"Rahul’s average in ODI cricket is 50 (sic 48.53). That’s the answer," replied Gambhir during the post-match press conference in Dubai.

"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 about protecting yourself in the playing level and rest whatever is needed of you to do it for the team, you should be happily doing it and KL Rahul has done that and KL has done that really happily and he has done that really well at No. 6 as well. People keep talking about it, I don't know for how long they have been talking about it, that why we pushed KL at number 6," Gambhir responded to another query on Rahul's position.

Just we feel that he gives us more depth and that is how we want to play the game and the conversations which I have had with him or the conversations which I have had with everyone is exactly the same. In a team sport, especially in cricket and in this format, we are not going to talk about batting positions. We are going to talk about how can we create that impact and what is needed of the team and we will continue doing that, the Delhi-born added.

Also Check: Watch: 'Mai maar raha tha yaar' - KL Rahul reacts to Virat Kohli's dismissal

Rahul scales up to ODI milestone

Rahul's unbeaten 42 was not only influential in India's win, but also great from a personal perspective. His innings was decorated with a couple of boundaries and as many sixers, also had him breach the 3000-run mark in the ODI format. The 32-year-old has taken 78 innings to achieve the milestone in his nine-year stint in the format so far.

The Bengaluru-born also has seven centuries and 16 fifties to his tally, while batting at different positions throughout his career, showing his dynamism in the team and the strength of being adaptable to a number of conditions and situations. He will now be looking to carry forward the same impact in the upcoming finale on Sunday as well.