Former Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal applauded India’s head coach and captain duo Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma for the team’s champion mentality in the Kanpur Test. Speaking before Day 5 of the Test match, Tamim said that India could have easily played for 90 overs on Day 4 of the Test match and tried to bowl out Bangladesh on the final day of the game as well. However, Team India decided to come out with an aggressive approach and did not care about personal milestones as well.

“When Bangladesh play against Zimbabwe there’s a lot to lose for Bangladesh, not a lot to gain. A lot of pressure is on Bangladesh. It’s similar to India when India is playing Bangladesh. There’s a lot to lose for India, not much to gain. So in this kind of situation, the bigger teams normally take the safer way and which India could have taken yesterday. Just bat normally 90 overs and see what happens and then give Bangladesh 30-40 overs and see if they can get out. But that is the difference of the mentality of a champion team, and a team who has not been very successful in international cricket. India took the attacking way and it was backed heavily backed by the management and the captain,” Tamim Iqbal said on Jio Cinema ahead of Day 5 of the Test match.

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However, he also said that Rohit Sharma managed to convince the Indian team that personal milestones were not important and that the team needed to play aggressively as well. He also said that Sharma was leading the team by example, coming out and hitting the first ball for six as well.

“You saw the way Rohit came in yesterday, first ball six, maybe the first three shots was almost all sixes, so that shows the mentality and that is the way he wants to lead and that is the way he wants all the other players to perform. So it’s a great example. I think whatever he is doing, I’m not in that dressing room, I don’t know much, but from the outside, whatever he is doing is working for them. Personal milestones, personal achievements are not important, as they used to be before. It’s all about team, whether you get 20 or whether you get 200. If the team needs you, you have to do it, and that is the beauty,” Tamim Iqbal concluded.