‘It’s not about the hundred, it’s about the impact’: Gambhir sets India’s next T20 target

PC- RevSportz

After Abhishek Sharma’s blazing 30-ball hundred in the third T20I against Afghanistan at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi, Gautam Gambhir, India’s coach, said the bigger positive was the impact created rather than the milestone itself.

“Look, I’ll tell you one thing. I just want to say one thing: it’s not about the hundred that he scored today,” he said at the post-match press conference. “I can sit here and keep talking about his hundred, but it’s just the impact.

“The only thing that we talk about in that dressing room is how much impact can we create with the bat and how much impact can we create with the ball. And that has been our ideology, that has been our philosophy for the last two, two and a half years.

“T20 cricket is not about runs or wickets, it’s about how much impact you can create. And for both Sanju [Samson] and Abhishek, I think you can easily sit here and say one got a 50 and the other one got a 100. But for me, I think the biggest positive was when we got 100 in the powerplay.

“We have never done that in my coaching tenure. So, I think that was a very clear message that if you’re going hard, just keep going hard. That is the message, and that is exactly the message going to be in the future as well, that we still haven’t reached 300.

“So, that’s probably the next target because the kind of talent we have in that dressing room, we should be doing some incredible things. So, we still have a lot of expectations.”

Recurring injuries and player unavailability have made team-building difficult for India, with Gambhir admitting that he wants his young captains to have the best possible playing XI available consistently across formats.

Asked whether continuously changing combinations because of injuries had become a problem for the team, Gambhir said: “See, if I give a dead honest answer, then yes. Because, especially in Test cricket or One-Day cricket, you want your best players to play as much as they can, because the next World Cup is a 50-over World Cup.

“And more importantly, it’s not fair on a young captain as well if he doesn’t get the best team playing consistently and regularly, and not being on the park consistently.

“I can, as a coach, take all the criticism, but for me, I think it is important for Shubman to get the best playing XI as many times as he can in red-ball cricket and in white-ball cricket, 50-over cricket as well.”

Follow RevSportz for latest sports news

The post ‘It’s not about the hundred, it’s about the impact’: Gambhir sets India’s next T20 target appeared first on Sports News Portal | Revsportz.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

From scoring ton in Patna to taking on bouncers like a ‘bullet’ in Perth – Nitish’s story of perseverance

Image
Nitish Kumar Reddy during the 1st innings of the Perth Test (PC: Debasis Sen) “Grateful, an innings to remember.” Nitish Reddy had posted the aforesaid statement on his Instagram account after cracking his maiden first-class hundred, against Bihar, in Patna. It wasn’t just about Nitish scoring an unbeaten 159 for Andhra. It was also about the way he scored those runs. He essayed a few crunchy drives off Veer Pratap Singh and also showcased his range of shots against Ashutosh Aman, the left-arm spinner, by playing with the turn and also against the turn. This hundred from Nitish came just before the 2024 IPL season, where he accumulated 303 runs. Once again, it wasn’t just about Nitish accruing 303 runs as he accumulated them with a touch of class. Soon, the Indian think-tank drafted the all-rounder into the limited-overs set-up. Although he missed the Zimbabwe series because of a hernia problem, it was crystal clear that the coaching staff had a vision – to pick him for the tour o...
Read more

Consistent Nicholas Pooran can be world’s top T20 batter

Image
Nicholas Pooran’s carnage against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Image: IPL He has always had a calmness about him. A very West Indian relaxed kind of mindset and demeanour. And having seen adversity, he knows that one needs to celebrate and value the good that comes your way. The urge to keep getting better, and be the best version of oneself, is what defines the new Nicholas Pooran. That’s what came through in the candid conversations we had on the IPL and his own approach to batting. Not overawed by the 21-crore price tag or the weight of expectations, Pooran is simply going about his job. He knows he can hit the ball miles and is keeping it simple. Go and do what you do best for hours and hours at practice, and in doing so, help your team Lucknow Super Giants] demolish opponents. “The best part about this franchise is they have never put me under pressure,” he told me. “When you are paid a lot of money, there is always pressure. Not so much from outside but from within. You know you ne...
Read more

Turning the clock back by 0.12 seconds

Image
MS Dhoni with a stumping dismissal against MI in the IPL 2025 in Chennai (PC: BCCI) The moment of the Chennai Super Kings-Mumbai Indians match lasted less than half a second. It was the 11 th over of the MI innings. Suryakumar Yadav was bringing the batting side back in the game. Noor Ahmad beat him on a forward charge, the ball spun away, and the right-hander’s hind leg got off the ground before he planted it back. That was all MS Dhoni needed to brush the bails off. At a packed MA Chidambaram Stadium decked in yellow and chanting his name, that was the only occasion when Dhoni was in ‘action’. It showed that at 43, his reflexes have not slackened and he has got sharper in plotting dismissals. This one was replayed on TV again and again during the match and commentators couldn’t help but keep talking about it. He had conceded four byes on the leg side in the same over. But this was the Dhoni who elevated stumping to another level. When it comes to waiting for batters to err wit...
Read more