5 Indian players with a point to prove in the Champions League T20

With the ICC World Cup in Australia and New Zealand not too far away, the Indian selectors would have already started turning their thoughts towards the 30 probables and, in turn, the 15-member squad for the tournament. The squad picked for the recently concluded ODI series in England gave us a fair idea of the players that are in contention for the World Cup. The players not in the mix in recent times, however, need not worry as they have a chance of impressing in the upcoming Champions League T20 and thereby staking claim for a spot in the World Cup squad.The CLT20 and the ODI World Cup are of course different formats, but there have been plenty of examples of Indian players impressing in tournaments like IPL and CLT20 and going on to earn a berth in the 50-over side.Here are 5 Indian players with a point to prove in the CLT20:

#1 Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir made a comeback to the Indian team, during the recent 3-1 Test series loss to England, one and a half years after last playing for India in the home Test series against England in December 2012. But all the hard work Gambhir had done during his time out of the national team seemed to be of little use as his old deficiency of poking at the ball outside the off-stump resurfaced, and he ended up with returns of 25 runs from 2 Tests at a horrendous average of 6.25.

Gambhir’s Test series might have called time on his Test career, but he will still be determined to reclaim his spot in the ODI side and feature in next year’s World Cup. After all, it was Gambhir’s 97 in the final against Sri Lanka which went a long way to ensuring that India won their first World Cup in 28 years and helped Sachin Tendulkar achieve his dream of winning a World Cup before retiring.

The only way Gambhir, who will be captaining Kolkata Knight Riders in the CL T20, can do that is by scoring runs on a consistent basis in this tournament to begin with, which will not only assist KKR in their effort to win the tournament but also help Gambhir in achieving his aim of being part of the side that defends their World Cup title come next year.