KOLKATA: Many moons ago Gautam Gambhir played a brilliant knock at the Wankhede Stadium and helped India win their second ODI World Cup after a long gap of 28 years. Gambhir scored 97 as India chased down a tricky target of 275 in the final against Sri Lanka. Cut to present, Gambhir is now head coach of India and devising strategies to Men in Blue defend their T20 World Cup title.
On Sunday they were up against a West Indies packed with power hitters in a knockout match at the Eden Gardens. Shai Hope and Co had posted a formidable total of 195 on the board after being invited to bat.
As he did back in 2011, Gambhir needed someone from his team to play a match-winning knock for India and that's when Sanju Samson, struggling for runs of late, responded and reminded the world of the immense potential he has. Like his coach, he not only hammered 97 runs but also remained unbeaten to guide Suryakumar Yadav and Co home with four balls to spare and five wickets in hand. Fittingly enough the former India player termed Sanju a world class player and hoped he continued in the same vein in the matches to follow.
"Sanju - he is a world class player, we all know how good a player Sanju is. And it was all about backing him. And then when the team needed him the most, obviously today was a day where he probably showed his true potential as well. And hopefully, This is a time for him to kick off and probably two more games to go, hopefully," Gambhir told journalists in the post-match presentation on Sunday.
The head coach said the Kerala batter played normal cricketing shots and never muscled the ball. "Look, I actually thought that he never accelerated the innings. It was just a very, very normal cricketing shots and I never saw any muscling the ball as well and that is the kind of talent he has. When you know that you're in control of the game and you know that you're feeling good, he's hitting the ball really well in the nets and it's about going in the middle and showcasing that skill that you had and obviously he knew that the wicket was very good, quick outfield as well but again I have always said that he is a world class player, he is a great talent and hopefully he can kick off from now and hopefully we can see a lot more innings like this from Sanju."
Gambhir said the last innings against Zimbabwe was important for Sanju and gave him a lot of confidence. The former Delhi captain asserted a break from the game took pressure away from Sanju which in turn helped him to roar back to form. "...I have conversations with everyone and the most important thing is the guys who are part of this squad of world class players and that's where they're representing the country and we always knew the talent that Sanju had. Three T20 hundreds, not many people have it, So we always knew that obviously he had a tough series against New Zealand, so sometimes it's important to give him a break as well, because you want to get the guy off that pressure situation as well. And we always knew that whenever we need him in the World Cup game, he'll come and deliver it for us. And exactly, against Zimbabwe, yes, he delivered it for us. We got a start that we wanted in the first three overs. And today, again, from where he left against Zimbabwe, he showcased his talent. And this is what we expect from Sanju to do more consistently."
The co-hosts were spot on with their plans, be it utilising Jasprit Bumrah in the middle overs or asking Axar Patel to bowl in the powerplay. He also credited Hardik Pandya for the way he bowled in different phases of the game. "We knew that West Indies have got a lot of firepower in the middle, with (Shimron) Hetmyer, Rovman (Powell) and Sherfane (Rutherford). And we know that those guys are quality players, those guys can take the game away from us. So we always knew that we needed someone like Bumrah in the middle to bowl at them. And I thought Hardik did a really good job because sometimes bowling against these guys on this kind of a wicket, your fifth bowler, actually can always be under pressure. Hardik and Axar, I thought, controlled the game for us because those eight overs were very crucial. We knew that Arsh (Arshdeep Singh), Bumrah and Varun (Chakaravarthy) were always about to bowl their four overs. So I thought that for me today I think the most important thing was how Hardik and how Axar bowled. Yes, we can keep talking about the other three bowlers but that's the reason why we felt that Bumrah was important in the middle. So every time we have a big over, we can go back to Bumrah and try and control the game. Because you don't want two back-to-back big overs in a T20 game. That can take the game away from you. So for me, I think Bumrah is a banker and we'll continue to use him in different ways."
He also reserved special praise for Shivam Dube and said his two fours in the penultimate overs changed the course of the game.
India will now move to the Wankhede Stadium, the venue that witnessed Gambhir playing one of the most important innings of his life, and take on England in the second semifinal on March 5. Gambhir will hope someone from his team would once again raise his hand just like he did back in 2011 and Sanju did in Kolkata and keep their dream of retaining the title and creating history alive.
