Former India pacer Atul Wassan does not agree with Gautam Gambhir’s team selection for the Champions Trophy 2025. Speaking to ANI, Wassan expressed that he does not understand why Gambhir keeps playing KL Rahul ahead of Rishabh Pant in the ODI format.
India take on Pakistan in their crucial group-stage game in the Champions Trophy on Sunday, February 23. KL Rahul, who batted well in India’s opener against Bangladesh, is once again expected to don the wicketkeeping gloves.
Wassan slammed Gambhir’s decision and stated that benching Rishabh for long durations in the format would hurt his confidence, and the player would go from hero to zero in no time. Wassan further added that opposition teams fear Pant and that he should be playing in the first XI of the Indian line-up.
“You let Bangladesh score 228 runs after they were 35/5. Big teams will eat you up if you let them do that. Gautam Gambhir is picking his own team. I am just very upset that Rishabh Pant is not playing. I don’t know why. What is going on? Pant is a mercurial player, whom the other team is scared of. Because they know that he can win matches on his own,” Atul Wassan said in an interview with ANI.
“KL Rahul is a great player. But I don’t know what they see in him that he is playing Test matches, ODIs, and everything. Rishabh Pant is on the bench now. This is how you ruin players. If you put a good player in a situation where he keeps thinking whether he will play or not, that player will go from hero to zero,” Atul Wassan concluded on the matter.
KL Rahul was India’s first-choice wicketkeeper in the ODI World Cup 2023 in the absence of Pant. Rahul, barring the Final, had a stellar World Cup, scoring 452 runs at an average of 49.77. Since then, he has been a mainstay in the ODI side.
