India clinch historic 3rd T20 World Cup as Gambhir’s ‘team first’ philosophy delivers

In front of nearly 87,000 fans, instead of tears of joy, there was the joy of achieving a milestone which perhaps no other team could achieve in near future.

Suryakumar Yadav and his fellows created history with an unprecedented third World Cup win and more importantly making it a one-sided affair starting from the opening ball of the final.

While the team’s mantra entering the ICC T20 World Cup was to not focus on ‘personal feats’, rather on the team’s collective performance.

Gautam Gambhir deserves full credit for building a team with strong batting depth, capable all-rounders, and for consistently backing players regardless of their performance. “For me, the only thing that matters, is my unit. Players make coaches. And, this is my ideology. I think Surya is one the same page, that’s why the fans have seen this day,” said Gambhir.

Gambhir has made history becoming the first Indian coach to have bagged two major ICC trophies.

“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 and 89.”

“Imagine if you would have been playing for a milestone, probably we wouldn’t have achieved 250. So I think this is for the media 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,” said Gambhir.

In both the semi-final and the final, Sanju Samson got out while attempting to hit sixes, even though he was just 11 runs short of a century on both occasions.

“I would prefer the team to get out for 100–120 runs rather than score 150–160, because a total of 150–160 often puts the team into a very defensive mindset. We have to play T20 cricket aggressively. Even after losing to South Africa national cricket team, we didn’t change our approach. The best chance we had to win this World Cup was to see how we reacted when a batter was close to 100.

Everyone in the dressing room bought into this mindset. The only way to score big totals is by putting the team ahead of personal milestones. Every player in that dressing room prioritized the team over himself, and that is why we were able to achieve something special,” said Gautam Gambhir.

He also dedicated the victory to three former teammates. “I think I should dedicate this trophy to Rahul Dravid, and then to VVS Laxman, because of what Rahul bhai has done to keep Indian cricket in such good shape. I have to thank him for everything he did during his tenure. I also want to thank VVS Laxman for doing so much for Indian cricket unconditionally, especially behind the scenes, because the BCCI Centre of Excellence remains the pipeline for Indian cricket.

The third person is obviously Ajit Agarkar, because he often faces a lot of criticism, and I appreciate the honesty with which he has worked. I also thank Jay Shah, as he was the only person who called and supported me during my downfall,” Gambhir added.

He also spoke about selecting players, building depth in the squad, and promoting the ‘Team First’ mindset.

“I feel that we are very fortunate as a team, and as a coach and captain, because of the depth we have in the dressing room. We could have played three, four, or even five different combinations,” Gambhir said.

“We could have played two wrist spinners, or had batting depth until No. 8. We also had different options at the top order, with three openers who could bat at any time. It’s not just about inheriting a team; it’s also about creating something of your own. As a coach, I always wanted to see whether we could play a completely different brand of cricket.”