Kolkata : Indian Head coach Gautam Gambhir made brave and bold statements ahead of India’s clash against New Zealand in 3 Match Test Series starting from October 16.
Gambhir is full confident of his team’s strength and confidence.
Regarding upcoming New Zealand and Australian challenges he said that despite respecting the opponents, Team India don’t fear anyone. They’re humble, selfless and will try as hard as possible to win games.
“We respect them, but we don’t fear anyone. We want to be selfless. We want to be humble. We want to try and play the game as hard as possible on the cricket field. Whether it is New Zealand or Australia, we will try to win every match for our country“, expressed Gambhir.
Gambhir, known for his aggressive and out of the box approach in Cricket, displayed those in his 1st Test assignment against Bangladesh where they brutalized them with Bat and Ball, with an aggressive approach, especially at Kanpur where they finished the Match in 1st half of Day 5 even after 3 days being washed out.
Regarding this, Gambhir focused on his high risk and high reward strategy.
He said, “Why do we need to hold on to people? If they can play the natural game, if they can get 400-500 runs in a day, why not? We will play it that way — high risk, high reward, high risk, high failure”.
Gambhir expressed his support towards a player or players in case of failure and ensured backing them.
He told, “There will be days when we’ll get bundled out for 100 and we’ll take it up then. But we’ll continue to back our players to go out there and play high risk cricket. That’s how we want to keep the game going forward and get the results in whatever situation we are in.”
Not only did Gambhir focus on aggressiveness but also adaptability. He emphasized that just like scoring 400 runs a day is beneficial, equally important is to Bat for more than 2 days, and Indian team has certain kind of players according to him. The main focus of the team is nothing less than winning.
Gambhir described, “I had said in Chennai that we want to be a team that can make 400 runs in a day and bat for two days to draw. That’s called growth. That’s called adaptability and that’s called Test cricket. If you play the same way, then it’s not growth,” Gambhir elaborated.
He expressed confidence in his team’s ability to handle various situations without deviating from their aggressive approach.”We have a lot of individuals in the dressing room who can bat for two days. So, ultimately, the first motive is to win the match. If we’re in a situation where we have to play for a draw, then that’s the second or the third option. We don’t want to play any other type of cricket. We want people to go out there and play the natural game.”
Acknowledging New Zealand’s capability he said, “New Zealand is a completely different challenge. We know that they’re a very, very good team and they’ve got some really high-quality players. They’ve got players who can hurt us. They keep fighting. So, three Test matches are going to be a huge challenge, We respect them, but we don’t fear anyone. We want to be selfless. We want to be humble. We want to try and play the game as hard as possible on the cricket field. Whether it is New Zealand or Australia, we will try to win every match for our country.”
While several significant matches are on India’s calendar, including 5 Match Test series against Australia next month, Gambhir emphasized staying focused on the immediate challenge against New Zealand.“The first thing is that the World Test Championship is in June (2025).The second thing is that the Test match in Australia is on 22nd November. Right now, only New Zealand is on our mind. When you play international cricket, you don’t think about how to prepare for the five Test matches in Australia, as right now, the most important thing is how to be ready on 16th November at 9.30 am. That is more important because you don’t see ahead that far.”
India, unbeaten at home since 2013 , will have an upper hand facing the Kiwi challenge starting from October 16.
