Mumbai, Feb 3 (PTI) India head coach Gautam Gambhir said the team is ready to push the barriers in T20 Internationals with the adoption of a fresh “high-risk, high-reward” approach, and the target is now “to get 250-260 regularly” in the format.
That shift in mindset was evident in India’s 4-1 mauling of England in the just-concluded five-match series.
In the fourth T20I at Pune, India kept attacking England despite losing wickets to eventually set a match-winning 181 for 9, and at Mumbai on Sunday, the hosts raced to 247 for 9, their fourth highest total in this format.
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“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 really well,” Gambhir told the host broadcaster after the match on Sunday.
Gambhir said they are looking to post tall totals in the vicinity of 250 in every game, and he doesn’t mind getting out for a low score in some matches while attempting to achieve the task.
“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.
“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 continue playing this way and we don’t want to fear losing anything,” he added.
“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 used the breathtaking 54-ball 135 of Abhishek Sharma to further validate his point.
“We want to keep backing players like Abhishek Sharma. We have to be patient with these boys. I haven’t seen a better T20 hundred against bowlers who are bowling at 140-150 kph consistently,” he added.
Gambhir also lauded spinner Varun Chakravarthy for reinventing himself and coming back stronger to international cricket.
“I think his transformation from IPL to international T20 cricket has been phenomenal. 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’ve played on – I think they were fantastic batting wickets and the way he’s bowled those tough overs has been phenomenal,” said Gambhir.
Chakravarthy was the highest wicket-taker in the series with 14 scalps at an average of 9.85 and economy rate of 7.66.
There were talks about rifts in the Indian dressing room after the team’s disastrous outing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against Australia.
Gambhir said everything will fall in place once the team returns to winning ways.
“They (these players) have played a lot of cricket against each other. That’s all Indian cricket is all about us.
“When results start going your way, everything goes well. Our players know what it means to represent 140-150 crore Indians,” he added.
On the controversy surrounding Harshit Rana coming in as a concussion sub for Shivam Dube in the previous match at Pune, Gambhir said rather lightly: “He (Dube) probably bowled four overs today.”
