NEW DELHI: Gautam Gambhir started his Team India head coach tenure with a 3-0 T20I series victory against Sri Lanka at Pallekele.
India won the first T20I by 43 runs on Saturday, the second T20I by 7 wickets (DLS) on Sunday and the third T20I via Super Over on Tuesday.
The Indian cricket board (BCCI), on Wednesday, shared a video on their official X handle in which Gambhir and Hardik Pandya address the players in the dressing room.
Gambhir said, “Guys congratulations on a great series win. Congratulations to Surya as well, outstanding captaincy and more importantly with the bat as well. Guys, I asked for something before the start of the game and you absolutely delivered it. This is what happens when you keep fighting. You don’t give up. These kind of games happen, and the only way these games can happen is when we keep fighting on every delivery and for every run. And this was the example we keep getting better, we keep improving our skills as well, because we need to still get better on playing on wickets like these, because we might end up getting these kinds of wickets. So we should first assess the situation and conditions really quickly and what is the par score as well. There is a lot of learning from this game, but more important than not this is a great series win.”
Led by Suryakumar and coached by Gautam Gambhir, India’s new-age T20 team started strongly after the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja following the team’s T20 World Cup triumph last month.
For the players who will not be a part of the ODI series, Gambhir said, “Some of the guys, who will not be part of the 50-over format, will have a longer break, you absolutely deserve it, but make sure when you come back for the Bangladesh series, keep your skills and specially the fitness levels high. You don’t want to come for that series thinking that, okay, I can just turn up and probably deliver for the team. So make sure that from the fitness point of view, the fitness levels are right up there. Okay, congratulations once again, Hardik is going to wrap it up.”
Making four changes to the team, India had rested Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant.
Pandya said, “First of all, well done! I think in batting first, we were challenged, conditions were difficult, but I think after losing those early wickets Shubman (Gill) and Riyan (Parag) the way they batted and created the partnership was brilliant. When you speak about situational awareness, I think that point of time, what you both did was very, very important. And that gave us a platform to atleast reach to a decent total which our bowlers made sure bowl at the right areas. Especially, I always emphasize on the fact that the lower order has to come and chip in and I think Washi (Washington Sundar) and those 8 runs by Bishi (Ravi Bishnoi) were very important.”
Suryakumar Yadav took two wickets in successive balls in his first outing as a bowler in T20 matches after Rinku Singh had bowled a superb penultimate over conceding just 3 runs and taking 2 wickets.
But India captain of the series Suryakumar Yadav chose Washington Sundar to bowl the Super Over.
Pandya also lauded Suryakumar Yadav for his captaincy saying, “As Gauti bhai mentioned, Surya, well done on making sure that the way you rotated the bowlers, making sure, showing faith in the bowlers, which you gave in the last couple of overs. That was brilliant. And as a bowling group, obviously it was fantastic everyone chipped in. Washi, well done buddy. When you win games like this, eventually it kind of takes us forward. We are taking step by step. But this was definitely a right step going forward for the future and well done to all the guys who are playing ODIs, kill it! Continue!”
India won the first T20I by 43 runs on Saturday, the second T20I by 7 wickets (DLS) on Sunday and the third T20I via Super Over on Tuesday.
The Indian cricket board (BCCI), on Wednesday, shared a video on their official X handle in which Gambhir and Hardik Pandya address the players in the dressing room.
Gambhir said, “Guys congratulations on a great series win. Congratulations to Surya as well, outstanding captaincy and more importantly with the bat as well. Guys, I asked for something before the start of the game and you absolutely delivered it. This is what happens when you keep fighting. You don’t give up. These kind of games happen, and the only way these games can happen is when we keep fighting on every delivery and for every run. And this was the example we keep getting better, we keep improving our skills as well, because we need to still get better on playing on wickets like these, because we might end up getting these kinds of wickets. So we should first assess the situation and conditions really quickly and what is the par score as well. There is a lot of learning from this game, but more important than not this is a great series win.”
Led by Suryakumar and coached by Gautam Gambhir, India’s new-age T20 team started strongly after the retirements of stalwarts Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja following the team’s T20 World Cup triumph last month.
For the players who will not be a part of the ODI series, Gambhir said, “Some of the guys, who will not be part of the 50-over format, will have a longer break, you absolutely deserve it, but make sure when you come back for the Bangladesh series, keep your skills and specially the fitness levels high. You don’t want to come for that series thinking that, okay, I can just turn up and probably deliver for the team. So make sure that from the fitness point of view, the fitness levels are right up there. Okay, congratulations once again, Hardik is going to wrap it up.”
Making four changes to the team, India had rested Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant.
Pandya said, “First of all, well done! I think in batting first, we were challenged, conditions were difficult, but I think after losing those early wickets Shubman (Gill) and Riyan (Parag) the way they batted and created the partnership was brilliant. When you speak about situational awareness, I think that point of time, what you both did was very, very important. And that gave us a platform to atleast reach to a decent total which our bowlers made sure bowl at the right areas. Especially, I always emphasize on the fact that the lower order has to come and chip in and I think Washi (Washington Sundar) and those 8 runs by Bishi (Ravi Bishnoi) were very important.”
Suryakumar Yadav took two wickets in successive balls in his first outing as a bowler in T20 matches after Rinku Singh had bowled a superb penultimate over conceding just 3 runs and taking 2 wickets.
But India captain of the series Suryakumar Yadav chose Washington Sundar to bowl the Super Over.
Pandya also lauded Suryakumar Yadav for his captaincy saying, “As Gauti bhai mentioned, Surya, well done on making sure that the way you rotated the bowlers, making sure, showing faith in the bowlers, which you gave in the last couple of overs. That was brilliant. And as a bowling group, obviously it was fantastic everyone chipped in. Washi, well done buddy. When you win games like this, eventually it kind of takes us forward. We are taking step by step. But this was definitely a right step going forward for the future and well done to all the guys who are playing ODIs, kill it! Continue!”
The ODI series between the two teams starts from Friday in Colombo, with captain Rohit Sharma, batting mainstay Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer coming into the team.
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