India head coach Gautam Gambhir: 'We will support players to play high-risk cricket'

Bengaluru: In anticipation of the upcoming three-match Test series against New Zealand starting on Wednesday, India head coach Gautam Gambhir affirmed that the team's think-tank will maintain their support for the batters in their approach of playing high-risk cricket in the longer format.

In its last Test match, which was played against Bangladesh in a rain-hit Green Park Stadium at Kanpur, India came out all guns blazing in their first innings by setting new records for the fastest 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 scores in the longer format, before declaring at 285/9.

The Rohit Sharma-led side then chased down 95 in 17.2 to complete a blazing win and seal the series 2-0. “We want people to be aggressive, go out there and play the natural game. Why do we need to hold on people? If they can play the natural game, get 400 or 500 runs in a day, why not?”

“I’ve always maintained T20 cricket has to be played that way, and we will play that way. High risk, high reward, high risk, high failure, and we will continue to play that way. There will be days when we’ll get bundled out for 100, but we’ll take it up, continue to back our players to go out there and play high risk cricket.”

“That’s how we want to play, entertain the people of this country, and even in Test cricket, we want to keep making the game go forward, and try to get the results in whatever situation we are in,” said Gambhir in a pre-series press conference.

New Zealand haven’t won a Test match in India since 1988, but Gambhir remarked the hosts’ won’t take the Tom Latham-led side lightly, citing the quality player they have and their capabilities of making the visitors’ be in the drivers’ seat at any point in the game.

“See, New Zealand is a completely different challenge. We know that they’re a very, very professional unit, have got some really high quality players who can hurt us, and can do the job for them as well.”

“So, we respect them, but we don’t fear anyone. I’ve said it many times that we will always respect every opposition, be selfless, humble, try and play the game as hard as possible on the cricket field. Once the game is over, we want to try and stay as humble as possible.”

“But we need to be switched on from ball one, and that is the responsibility of the support staff to keep the players switched on come – whether we are batting or bowling first, and try and be as professional as we can, try keep moving the game forward and get the results in our favour.”

Gambhir also felt the current era belongs more to bowlers than batters, adding that the country’s batter-obsessed attitude needs to end. “This is the era of the bowlers. Batters only set up the matches. It’s very important for our batsman-obsessed attitude to end. If the batters make 1000 runs, there’s still no guarantee that the team will win a Test match.”

“But if a bowler takes 20 wickets, there’s a 99% guarantee that we’ll win the match. Be it Test matches or any other formats, bowlers win you matches and tournaments. So I hope this era or the upcoming ones, we’ll talk more about bowlers than batters, and I hope the mindset changes over time.”

He signed off by backing premier batter Virat Kohli to come good after the right-handed batter made only one fifty in his last eight Test innings. “My thoughts about Virat has always been very clear – that he is a world class cricketer. He has performed for such a long period of time and he is as hungry as when he made his debut.”

“I remember opening the batting with him when he made his debut in Sri Lanka. Till now, his hunger is always and is already there. That is what makes him a world class cricketer and I am sure that he will be hungry to get runs in this series and probably moving forward to Australia as well. We know that once he gets into those runs scoring, how consistent can he be.”