AHMEDABAD: IT was a case of good cop, bad cop as well as good cop, good cop in the post-final press conference. Gautam Gambhir, a man who seldom smiles, laughed multiple times. Suryakumar Yadav, a man who laces most of his answers with humour, gave some very serious answers. It captured perfectly the mood of the Indian team post the T20 World Cup win. Between Gambhir and Suryakumar, the duo addressed a lot of questions spanning over 25 minutes. Excerpts:
On working with the players behind the players and how you dealt with doubters on social media
Gambhir: My accountability is not towards any social media (accounts). My accountability is mostly towards those 30 people sitting with me inside the dressing room. If I can work honestly with them, if we can put in the hard work honestly... the most important thing in this format was we didn't want to be afraid of losing. I always believe in high risk, high reward in this format.
Our target was always to make 250 runs. We didn’t want to play the 160 – 180 runs cricket. I think for too long, we played cricket with 160-170 runs. But for the last two years, it was the captain's philosophy, the captain's ideology – obviously, if the captain and coach are not on the same page, it can never be possible. The captain himself wanted to play high risk, high reward. And I think the credit needs to go to the captain as well.
I think Surya has made my life a lot easier in this format. I think he's a phenomenal leader. I think yes, he very rightly mentioned that he doesn't want to be called as a captain, he wants to be called as a leader, because leader is a far bigger figure, father figure in a dressing room than a captain. And again, I think my simple philosophy with Surya has always been that milestones don't matter. It's the trophies that matter. For too long in Indian cricket, we've spoken about milestones. And I hope, till I'm there, we're not going to talk about milestones. You can see it very easily as well. You can see it in the last three games, what Sanju (Samson) did. 97 not out, 89, 88. Imagine if you would have been playing for a milestone, probably we wouldn't have got 250. So I think this is for you guys as well. Stop celebrating milestones, celebrate trophies. That is going to be important, because the bigger purpose of a team sport is to be winning trophies.
On the roles played by the players picked in the squad
Suryakumar: They responded very well throughout the last two years. The brand of cricket which we wanted to play, I think it was important to sit together and understand what this team demands. Performing their roles, understanding their responsibilities, chipping in at the right time, talking to each player when someone is not doing well. That is more important for me. When someone is not doing well, you try and spend time with him, take him out for dinners, talk to him, because those are the players who at the right time will do something special for you like how Abhishek (Sharma) did just now and Sanju did in the last three games. So all these things really matter to me. I think freedom of speech in the dressing room - that is very important for me.
On playing in a home World Cup and coaching in a home World Cup
Gambhir: I was very fortunate to be part of the winning World Cup team, and now first time at home as a coach, and then winning that as well. See, the only thing we spoke about was how can we give ourselves the best chance to win this World Cup. And the best chance to give ourselves to win this World Cup was how we react when someone like a batter is close to 100. If someone is batting on 94, does he have the courage to go and get 100 next ball, rather than thinking about getting 100 for three or four balls. So I think guys have done that brilliantly. So I feel I think sometimes it's very difficult to change that mindset.
Olympic gold the next target
Suryakumar: It has been a wonderful journey in the last one month though it didn't start the way we wanted it to start, but then it's part of the sport. Throughout the journey till today, It has been very special and collectively as a team what we've achieved I think it's right in front of you (points towards the trophy) so very happy with that. And as you rightly said, definitely the next goal is Olympics, Olympic gold and also the T20 World Cup that year. Don't forget (smiles).