New Delhi: The blueprint has been ready. The character has been written. Now the question is about the head coach Gautam GambhirA coherent view of. If this happens, the inheritance of indian cricket Will be written and rewritten.
Sunday’s T20 match in Gwalior was another small step towards establishing the Gambhir era. Picking youngsters, bringing them in at the right time, filling the team with all-rounders and working hard in the T20 format are all traits of Gambhir’s mindset. You just need to focus your mind back towards them Kolkata Knight Riders Some days as captain and later as mentor or along with lsg As their guru and you will understand.
KKR won IPL Won titles in 2012 and 2014. Those teams were full of all-rounder and multi-utility cricketers. Andre Russell, Shakib Al Hasan, Yusuf Pathan and Lakshmi Ratan Shukla were all part of KKR. Around him, other players like Rajat Bhatia, Piyush Chawla and Vinay Kumar can add value in more than one department.
Cuts in the current T20 setup – hardik pandyaWashington Sundar, Axar Patel, the currently injured Shivam Dubey, and newcomer Nitish Reddy tick all the boxes. Others that add value are Rinku Singh And Ryan Prague. The brand of cricket is fearless, three-time IPL-winning captain and coach Gambhir has always claimed this.
Another aspect that serious players swear by is the role of the bowlers. He used to say and say with enthusiasm, “Batsmen set the game, bowlers get you titles.” He always advocated playing Test matches with 5 bowlers. Even in the white ball format he will ensure that there is a large and rich pool of bowlers.
Bringing Mayank Yadav, Varun Chakraborty, Harshit Rana and Yash Dayal into the team is part of that initiative. While the Gwalior T20I provided a small sample, the real deal was on display during the recently concluded Test series against Bangladesh.
India, leading 1-0 in the Test series, could have easily drawn the rain-affected Kanpur Test. But we saw that on the fourth day a new India emerged with a bang, shattering records and reputation.
At the lowest ebb of this approach were Serious – an aggressive, in-your-face brand of cricket. He has always said that to win in sports you must be prepared to lose, this mentality was happily adopted by India in Kanpur. The team could have easily settled for a low score in an attempt to equalize but they were willing to take the risk.
It seemed as if Kanpur was watching the massacre of whites in T20. In Test cricket, the fastest 50, fastest 100, 200 and then 250 runs kept coming. But the real story goes beyond statistics and records.
Bouncy, red clay pitch in Chennai
India opted to play on a bouncy, red clay pitch in the first Test in Chennai. Keeping the Australia tour in mind, they wanted to beat Bangladesh and test their batsmen. They could have easily opted for less-prepared, rank turners as has happened in the past when playing at home. Credit should be given to Rohit and company for this as the team has adapted to the sporting track since the England Test series at home earlier this year.
For Gambhir, there is nothing greater than victory. Even when he was Delhi captain more than a decade ago, the left-handed batsman had opted to play on the spicy surface of the Roshanara Club rather than the cool track of the then Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium. He could have boosted his numbers by playing at the Kotla but he took the tougher route to help the team get crucial home points.
Virat Kohli Pushed to number 5
In another move the ‘team first’ approach was again on display. The team’s most famous batsman, Virat Kohli, was asked to bat at number 5 instead of his usual number 4 in Test matches. Rishabh Pant was sent ahead of him to press the accelerator.
Anyone who has followed Indian cricket closely will tell you that it is difficult to motivate a famous batsman to change his batting position. It is also credit to Kohli that he happily came down the batting order for a greater cause. It is indeed a very comfortable and happy dressing room.
This is not the first time that Gambhir has ignored the height of a player and selected him based on the benefits of the team. Before the IPL final in 2012 Chennai Super KingsHe dismissed Brendon McCullum, one of the top batsmen of KKR. This step had to be taken due to the injury of regular fast bowler Balaji and Gambhir had to play Brett Lee in his place. He recently revealed in an interview that he had apologized to McCullum in front of the entire KKR team for that call, but he does not regret it as it was in the interest of the team. That final was won by KKR.
There is only one sect in that dressing room…
Gambhir has always preached and practiced that Indian cricket should stop hero-worship. From his playing days to his time as a commentator, he has been extremely vocal about this aspect. His maiden speech during the KKR training camp earlier this year had the same message.
“So people who have played with me, one thing they would know about me is that everyone in this group will be treated equally. There is no senior or junior. There is no domestic Or not international.” KKR won the title this year with Gambhir as its mentor. Whom he is also following in the Indian team. It seems that there is no preference given to seniors as everyone plays for the interest of the team.
Gambhir is here to win, to rebuild legacies, to play the team game the way it should be played. All he needs is consistency, courage and of course the support of his players to continue on this path.
