Not surprisingly, Gautam Gambhir, the India head coach, did not mince words when he mocked those spreading rumours of unease in the Indian team. There were a few incident reports sniffing about a divide in the Indian camp during the previous tour of Australia. With the Indian team failing in the series, the Australian series had added fuel to the fire, but Gambhir would not comment on this. After scripting the series victory against England with a 4-1 win in the T20I series, however, Gambhir decided to hit back at the rumours.
After the final T20 match in Mumbai on Sunday, Gambhir chimed in during the post-match talk, saying that the nature of results brings different kinds of whispers in the camp.
“It is such a long time that they play at least a little cricket with each other. It could also be that around a month ago, there were a couple of other things going around (laughs). That’s Indian cricket. There is so much said about the dressing room when everything is not okay. But once the results start going your way, the rest just fall into place.” Gambhir said.
Gambhir did not categorically call Border-Gavaskar rumours a lie. He just elaborated on the nature of the sport a bit.
Gambhir added that the team was ready to push the boundaries with its new “high-risk, high-reward” approach to T20 internationals, setting a target of “regularly getting 250-260 in that format”.
In the fourth T20I held in Pune, India kept attacking England, posting a match-winning 181 for 9 after losing wickets. In Mumbai, hosts scored 247 for 9, rating it the tablet’s fourth-highest total.
“We want to play that kind of T20 cricket, where there is no fear of losing. We want to play high-risk, high-reward cricket. These guys have done well in adopting that ideology,” Gambhir said after the match on Sunday.
Gambhir said they are targeting to put up tall totals, around the 250-mark, ahead of every match and he understands there will certainly be games in which he will end up low for that purpose.
“We want to try and score 250-260 on a regular basis. In trying to accomplish that, there will be games where we will end up getting bowled out for130-140, which is actually what T20 cricket is all about.
You cannot get high rewards without taking some high risks for it. Importantly, I think we are on course. In big tournaments we need to keep playing this way and not fear to lose,” he said.
