While questions remain over Virat Kohli and, specifically, Rohit Sharma’s spot in the Indian 2027 World Cup, Gautam Gambhir claimed that Indian skipper Shubman Gill is fortunate to have both former captains on the field in the ODI format and hailed the 26-year-old’s leadership in his first year as captain.
For those unaware, both Rohit and Virat have retired from Test and T20Is, which meant Gill started his tenure in the longest format without the senior duo with him. Gambhir admitted that India’s ODI team performances have been disappointing since the leadership change but backed Gill to turn it around.
“Look, obviously he is very In One Day cricket, when you talk about it, he’s very fortunate that he’s got the likes of Rohit and Virat to help him on the field and off the field as well. And then, more importantly, I think that calmness, I think keeping the emotions aside, because when you’re young, sometimes you can actually get dragged into the emotions as well. And my belief is, taking the tough decisions as well. Leaving out anyone in Indian cricket from the playing eleven is always going to be tough.
“But when you have to do that as a young captain, it is probably the toughest job for any coach and captain to do it. So far, he has done that. He has actually ticked all the boxes. He has been calm, he has been selfless, he has been aggressive, he has said the right things,” Speaking to JioStar ahead of India’s home season, Head Coach Gautam Gambhir shared his thoughts.
“So as a coach, when you see a young captain doing all those things, he puts in the hard yards, he works hard on his fitness, he leads by example, not only by runs. Because for a coach, it is not only about the amount of runs you score, because failure will happen to someone or the other. You will fail at some point. But if you work on your fitness, if your commitment when you are training, in training, in batting, in skills, in everything, if you’re ticking those boxes, you’re saying the right things, what could be better than that for any coach? So I feel that he has done all the right things. Hopefully he’ll get the results as well because he has had a bit of a tough time in One Day cricket. But I am sure, I think things will turn around because he has done all the right things,” he added.
Gautam Gambhir Names Bumrah, Hardik Key For 2027 World Cup
Elaborating on India’s plans for the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup, Gambhir opened up on the importance of the star pacer Jasprit Bumrah and talisman all-rounder Hardik Pandya. The Indian head coach claimed that a player like Hardik is a rare commodity while stating the importance of managing Bumrah’s workload.
“See, whether it’s Hardik, whether it’s Jasprit Bumrah, both of them are going to be extremely important for us in South Africa. Because the way if you talk about Jassi or if you talk about Hardik, very few teams have a player like that who can bowl ten overs for you, plus bat at number six or seven, plus with that impact. So the focus right now is just that, how we can especially for Hardik, because he needs game time as well. Because after the IPL he hasn’t played a lot of cricket. So if the focus is only that he has to play the 50-over format, then he might be short of cricket. So sometimes you will also think that in T20 cricket, if he plays a bit of T20 cricket, then plays one-day cricket because game time going into the World Cup is going to be extremely, extremely important,” Gambhir said.
” You cannot go there half-cooked. So you should have enough game time, your rhythm should be so good, because going to the World Cup, there are no ifs and buts. Going to the World Cup, there are no chances that you can make a mistake. And the same is with Jassi as well. Because with Jassi, too, the thought process is how much One Day cricket we can play him, plus Test cricket is equally important. So from both their points of view, whether it’s workload management or how much game time they should get before the World Cup, that is going to be critical,” the Indian head coach added.
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