Gautam Gambhir, the India coach, is calling for his side to push for perfection in the Champions Trophy final. The Indians will face the winners of Wednesday’s second semi-final, between South Africa and New Zealand, on Sunday in Dubai. They have been outstanding in the competition so far, claiming <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/cricket/2025/03/02/five-star-varun-chakravarthy-sets-up-indias-champions-trophy-semi-final-against-australia-in-dubai/" target="_blank">comfortable group stage wins </a>over Bangladesh, Pakistan and New Zealand. They also soundly <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/2025/03/04/virat-kohli-australia-india-dubai/" target="_blank">beat Australia</a>, their regular nemesis in major events, by four wickets in the semi-final on Tuesday. Despite their excellence to date, Gambhir reckons they can still step up their performance level. “In international sport, you want to keep improving,” Gambhir, the former India opener, said. “You don't say that you’ve ticked all the boxes. There is always room to improve. There's always something to improve, be it in batting, fielding, or bowling. “And we still haven't played a perfect game. We still have one more game to go. Hopefully we can play a perfect game. “That is the kind of person I am. I will never be satisfied with the performances. We want to keep improving, we want to stay humble, we want to be ruthless on the cricket field but absolutely humble off the field as well. “That's the kind of team environment and that’s the kind of culture we want to create in that dressing room and be absolutely honest. So hopefully we can play one more game and play our best game.” The four-wicket win against Australia was underpinned by another <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/sport/cricket/2025/03/01/champions-trophy-kl-rahul-says-words-cant-express-how-good-virat-kohli-has-been-for-india/" target="_blank">masterly performance by Virat Kohli </a>while chasing. He fell short of a second century in the space of three matches in the tournament, but he still laid the platform for victory. “He is a phenomenal one-day cricketer,” Gambhir said of Kohli. “He knows how to plan his runs, he knows how to plan whether he is batting first or chasing and he adapts to the conditions really quickly. “That is why experience and high-quality players are very important. That is the reason why he has got that kind of record in one-day cricket and I hope he continues to do that in the future as well.”
