Playing IPL for India call-up would be selfish - Gambhir

India opener Gautam Gambhir does not think IPL form should influence Champions Trophy selection. Gambhir, who last played an ODI for India in January 2013, has been in fine form for Kolkata Knight Riders in the ongoing IPL but said a call-up for the Champions Trophy was not on his mind. Scoring runs for KKR with the Champions Trophy in mind would be "selfish", he said, and emphasised that good T20 form should not warrant ODI selection given the differences in the two formats.

"Absolutely, I totally agree [that T20 numbers should not be the sole criteria for ODI selection]," Gambhir told ESPNcricinfo. "T20 runs should only be a criteria to get selected for a T20 side. The moment you start picking players in the one-day format by their T20 performance, then you are giving your domestic 50-over competitions absolutely no relevance."

Ahead of today's games, Gambhir is the second-highest run-maker in the IPL, with 411 in 11 matches at 51.37 and four half-centuries. His strike rate of 134.75 is his best since 2012, when it was 143.55 and helped KKR to their first IPL title. In the four IPLs in between, his strike rate did not touch 122. Given these numbers, Gambhir said he could easily have fallen into the trap of hoping to break into the the Indian team once again, but that is not the case. "I could have said that yes, I hope I'm in contention. But I have generally not thought about it. I am someone who tries a lot to stay in the present.

"The moment I start thinking about me scoring runs to be part of the Champions Trophy team, it would be a very, very selfish thing to do. And being a leader you can't do that. If I start thinking on those lines, there may be so many other guys in the [KKR] team who would be thinking of being in the Champions Trophy squad too and they would be thinking about their own individual performances then. That's not right. You should always stay in the present. Rest of the things are byproducts - if it happens, it happens. If it doesn't happen, it is fine. Ultimately I don't play to get selected, I play to win a game of cricket."

The demands of ODI cricket are very different to those of T20, Gambhir pointed out. "You need different skills to do well in 50-overs cricket. You need completely different skills to do well in Test cricket. You need different skills to do well in T20 cricket. It is not the same.

"The moment you start picking players in the one-day format by their T20 performance, then you are giving your domestic 50-over competitions absolutely no relevance."Gautam Gambhir

"Imagine, you have two new balls, two bouncers in one over, you have field restrictions, you have got 300 balls, and you have got quality bowlers from both ends with the new ball. You have got to have a tight technique, you can't be so fearless like how you do it in T20 format. You have got to have technique to survive those first 10 overs."

Gambhir last played for India in ODIs in the home series against England in January 2013. Inconsistent form and having alternative choices for the opening slot led to Gambhir being sidelined. Gambhir said there was no point dwelling on why he has not been picked since. "Nah, I don't need to do that. The only thing [that happened was] I didn't play one-day and T20 international cricket. I still play cricket. I still enjoy winning games. That is all that matters to me. That is what gives me happiness."

The Indian team for the Champions Trophy will be picked tomorrow, and the selectors will have to work out the opening combination. With KL Rahul injured, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan are at the top of the queue. But Rohit has not played for India since getting injured during last year's New Zealand series, and Dhawan and Rahane have endured patchy form. Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Parthiv Patel and Sanju Samson could be some of the names up for discussion should the selectors look outside those three.

One thing that stands against Gambhir is his domestic one-day form: he totalled 166 in five games at 33.20 in this season's Vijay Hazare Trophy for his state team Delhi. To an extent, the disruptions in the Delhi dressing room this season with senior players revolting against coach KP Bhaskar did prove a distraction, but Gambhir said a seasoned player like himself would be expected to rise above such issues and he tried to do as much. "It was a good learning [experience] for me, as to how to shut the [dressing-room] environment issue off."