Ahead of the T20I series vs Australia which is set to start this week, India head coach Gautam Gambhir opened up about his vision of building a fearless team and the Men in Blue’s recent brand of fearless cricket. Gambhir also talked about his equation with skipper Suryakumar Yadav and how in sync they both are about India’s approach.
“Surya is a great human being, and good humans make good leaders. While he speaks highly of me, my role is simply to advise him fairly based on my reading of the game. Ultimately, this is his team. His free-spirited character perfectly matches T20 cricket’s essence, it’s about freedom and expression. Your off-field personality reflects on the field and in the dressing room, and Surya has maintained this atmosphere brilliantly over the past 1.5 years,” Gambhir said in an interaction with JioHotstar.
“From our first conversation, we agreed: we will not fear losing. I don’t aim to be the most successful coach; I want us to be the most fearless team. In big games like the Asia Cup final, I told the players it’s okay to drop a catch, play a bad shot, or bowl a poor delivery. Human beings make mistakes. Only the opinions of those in the dressing room matter. Surya and I consistently agree: we will never fear mistakes. The bigger the game, the more fearless and aggressive we must be. A conservative approach only gives the opposition an advantage. With the talent we have, if we play fearlessly, we will be fine,” he added.
While playing the ultra-aggressive approach has yielded benefits for players like Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma who played a big role in helping India win the Asia Cup last month, skipper Surya hasn’t had the best of lucks with the bat, scoring just 72 runs in 7 innings he played in the tournament. Gambhir, however, said that he wasn’t concerned with Surya’s batting, backing him to come good eventually.
“Honestly, Surya’s batting form doesn’t concern me because we have committed to an ultra-aggressive template in our dressing room. When you embrace this philosophy, failures are inevitable,” Gambhir said.
“It would be easy for Surya to score 40 runs off 30 balls and avoid criticism, but we have collectively decided that it’s acceptable to fail while pursuing this approach,” he added.
