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‘We don’t want to fear losing a game of cricket’ – Gautam Gambhir on Indian’s T20 approach
By SMCS - Feb 3, 2025 11:50 am
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The Indian team has continued their dominance in the shortest format after beating England 4-1 in the five-match series. The last match of the series took place at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai where India beat England by 150 runs thanks to a brilliant century from Abhishek Sharma who also became the second-fastest Indian centurion in the T20 format. And, India head coach Gautam Gambhir was proud of the way the Indian team played as well.

Abhishek Sharma
Abhishek Sharma played a blitzkrieg knock

“That’s the kind of T20 cricket we want to play. We don’t want to fear losing a game of cricket, we want to play high-risk, high-reward cricket. And these guys have adopted that ideology, that policy really well. And I think the ideology of this T20 team is based on selflessness and fearlessness. And I think in the last six months, these guys have done it day in, day out,” Gambhir said while speaking to Star Sports.

“We want to try and get to 250-260 regularly. And in trying to do that, there’ll be games where we’ll get bundled out for 120-130. And that is what T20 cricket is all about. And unless and until you don’t play that high-risk cricket, you won’t get those big rewards as well. Most importantly, I think we’re on the right track. Come those big tournaments, we want to still continue playing this way and we don’t want to fear losing anything,” Gambhir further added.

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However, apart from Abhishek Sharma, Varun Chakravarthy also did well. He was adjudged the Player of the Series taking 14 wickets from the five games as well. Varun did not have a great show in the 2021 T20 World Cup but bounced back in international cricket in the last few series. Gambhir not only praised Varun for his transformation but also shared the reason for playing only one specialist pacer in the entire series as well.

Varun Chakravarthy
Varun Chakravarthy

“I think his transformation from IPL to international T20 cricket has been phenomenal, and this series was probably the benchmark as well because England is a high-quality side. They’ve got some really quality cricketers and the kind of surfaces we have played on – I think they were fantastic batting wickets and the way he’s bowled those tough overs has been phenomenal,” Gambhir said.

“I think having Bishnoi and Varun bowling in tandem was very important, especially in the middle phase, we always knew that the kind of batting line-up England has, they will always come hard at us in the first six overs. But it’s that phase between seven and 15. Can we have those two wicket-taking options in the middle? More importantly, we always wanted to have that No. 8 batter, even if he doesn’t face too many balls, just because of the kind of cricket we are playing. We want to try and go as hard as possible. Sometimes that cushion of having that No. 8 [batter] allows the top seven to go out there and play even more freely,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.