Gautam Gambhir praises seniors and youngsters after India’s ODI series win

India’s ODI series win over South Africa saw Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma deliver strong performances, while youngsters like Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna impressed. Coach Gautam Gambhir praised the balance between experienced players and emerging talent

Visakhapatnam: At this moment, the Indian think tank is doing a tough balancing act of building the team around a new set of players without completely cutting ties with the old guard.

In that context, head coach Gautam Gambhir, who oversees this process, was a delighted man to see both groups chipping in with handy contributions.

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Giving strength to the senior side, Virat Kohli emerged as player of the series in the ODIs against South Africa, scoring two hundreds and a fifty — a quick return to his incredible peaks of 2015 onwards.

Rohit Sharma helped himself to a couple of fifties to underline his fine touch.

Gambhir hoped the two stalwarts will continue to produce such performances, which will keep the ODI outfit in good shape.

“Look, they are quality players. I have said it many times as well that they are world-class players. They are quality players in this format and their experience is really important in the dressing room,” said Gambhir at the press meet after India beat SA by nine wickets to bag the one-day series 2-1.

“They are doing what they do. They have been doing it for such a long time for Indian cricket. Hopefully, they can continue doing the same, which is always going to be important in the white ball format and the 50-over format,” he added.

The rest given to seniors Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Siraj and the injury-enforced absence of Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya gave India a chance to test the skills of some young players.

Gambhir was particularly delighted with the growth of Harshit Rana as a bowling allrounder.

“That is one of the reasons why we are trying to develop someone like Harshit, who can actually bat at No 8 and contribute with the bat.

“That is how we need to find the balance, because come South Africa in two years’ time (2027 ODI WC), we would be needing three proper seamers as well. And if he can continue to develop as a bowling allrounder, it is going to give us a massive boost,” he said.

Similarly, Gambhir was also impressed by the outings of seamers Arshdeep Singh and Prasidh Krishna in the series.

“With Jasprit Bumrah coming back and what we saw of Arshdeep, Prasidh and Harshit in this series was incredible because all these three guys do not have a lot of experience, especially in the 50-over format. They have hardly played less than 15 ODIs. But they have done a fabulous job,” he said.