- 11 hours ago
T20 World Cup 2026: Speaking to the press after India’s Super 8 win over West Indies in Kolkata, head coach Gautam Gambhir heaped praise on Sanju Samson’s unbeaten 97. He also outlined India’s plans for Jasprit Bumrah and reiterated his belief in instinct over data and numbers.
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00:06Good to go. Guys, we have with us our coach, Mr. Gautam Gandhi. As usual, we take one question at
00:11a time. Yes, sir.
00:24I can hear it. Don't worry.
00:25Yeah, no, the mic has to be there. How is it to see that match-winning innings, especially on a
00:34day that was most needed? And how do you describe that from Sanju?
00:40He's a world-class player. We all know that how good a player Sanju is. And it was all about
00:44backing him. And then when the team needed him the most, obviously today was a day where he probably showed
00:49his true potential as well.
00:50But then hopefully, this is a time for him to kick off and probably two more games to go, hopefully.
00:57Gautam, congratulations on the win. Thank you.
00:59A big part of the victory was set up by how your team kept She-Hope quiet in the power
01:05play in the first innings. Less than 100 strike rate. You used your bowlers interestingly as well.
01:11Could you just describe the plan you had to She-Hope and what you thought of the bowlers' execution to
01:17ensure that him being West Indies' highest run scorer so far could operate only at 90?
01:21Look, I thought we started off really well, especially when you play this kind of a game of this magnitude.
01:27You got to start off really well with the new ball.
01:30And Aish and Hardik, the way they started off in the first three overs was really good. And then Aksar
01:35bowled two overs in the power play, which was again a great job done by him.
01:38Because it's never easy on this wicket, on this ground to bowl two overs in a power play, but Aksar
01:42did that really well.
01:43So I thought that we came out of the power play really well. The power play didn't go away from
01:49us, which again was very important because once the power play goes away from you, it's very difficult to contain
01:54after the power play.
01:55So I thought that once we had the power play in our hand, then obviously we were always in control
02:00of the game.
02:01Gautam, congratulations on the win, congratulations for reaching the semi-final, but would you say Sanju really showed West Indies
02:07how to do the Gangnam style with his footwork today?
02:10Talk to us a little bit about the footwork and the way he accelerated the innings.
02:15You know, sometimes he batted with a strike rate of over 200, then he brought it down. You know how
02:21he controlled it?
02:22Look, I actually thought that he never accelerated the innings. It was just a very, very normal cricketing shot and
02:29I never saw any muscling the ball as well.
02:33And that is the kind of talent he has when you know that you're in control of the game and
02:36you know that you're feeling good.
02:37He's hitting the ball really well in the nets and it's about going in the middle and showcasing that skill
02:42that you had.
02:43And obviously he knew that the wicket was very good quick outfield as well, but again, I've always said that
02:46he's a world class player.
02:47He's a great talent and hopefully he can kick off from now and hopefully we can see a lot more
02:52innings like this from Sanju.
02:53And football?
02:54Look, again, the most important thing is that when you're batting well in the nets, obviously you start moving really
02:59well and the last inning was important against Zimbabwe.
03:02Yes, people will keep looking at his scores and stuff, but then coming back into the team and then playing
03:09that kind of innings of 23-24, I thought must have given him a lot of confidence because obviously the
03:14guy had a tough series against New Zealand, but we always knew the kind of potential he had.
03:18And most importantly, I thought that the way he was batting in the nets was absolutely brilliant. So I think
03:23we've got two guys now, Ishan and Sanju, who are really good for Indian cricket, especially they can keep wickets
03:29as well.
03:29So I think we've got really good guys hopefully for the future as well.
03:35I can't hear you.
03:40Hello, can you?
03:42Yep.
03:42Taking a few from your last answer, like when Sanju was not in between, so what kind of conversation have
03:50you had with him to keep you in the right frame of mind?
03:55Look, I have conversations with everyone and the most important thing is the guys who are part of this squad
03:59are world class players and that's why they're representing the country.
04:02And we always knew the talent that Sanju had, three T20 hundreds, not many people have it.
04:07So we always knew that obviously he had a tough series against New Zealand, so sometimes it's important to give
04:11him a break as well because you want to get the guy off of that pressure situation as well.
04:15And we always knew that whenever we need him in the World Cup game, he'll come and deliver it for
04:19us and exactly against Zimbabwe, yes, he delivered it for us.
04:22We got a start that we wanted in the first three overs and today again, from where he left against
04:28Zimbabwe, he showcased his talent and this is what we expect from Sanju to do more consistently.
04:40Coach, we have seen you have a lot of conversations like with different players, be it Abhishek, Tilak, Sanju here.
04:48When there are a lot of talks around strike rates and how the players are not getting off the blocks
04:53like they were doing in bilaterals, what is your role to tell them not to over complicate things and what
04:59are your messages that you give to the players?
05:01The thing is very clear that bilaterals are very different to World Cups. The pressure is different, the competition is
05:06different, obviously the stakes are much higher as well.
05:09Bilaterals, you've got the time to make a comeback but in World Cups, you don't have time to make a
05:13comeback and more importantly, yes, people can talk about it.
05:17They expect us to play the same brand of cricket what we've played in the bilaterals as well but you
05:21can imagine the pressure the boys go through, especially most of the games are must-win games as well.
05:26Sometimes wickets can be tricky as well. During the bilaterals there were a lot of duo in the second innings
05:30as well but we didn't see a lot of duo during this World Cup campaign.
05:34So I felt that it was not only about the strike rates, it's about reading the game properly and obviously
05:40reading the situation as well.
05:41And that is something that is going to be important and the guys did that really well. Even today you
05:45saw the chasing 195, we never felt that we were out of the game.
05:51Never ever did we felt in 20 overs that the chase was away from us. So the guys kept in
05:56control. Yes, there were times in bilaterals where we could chase the target in 16, 17 overs but this is
06:01World Cup and the pressure is different and the quality is different as well.
06:05Congratulations, I'm in order of course but I want to know 196 is a target that doesn't get chased very
06:11often in the T20 World Cup. In fact this was India's highest successful chase in this competition.
06:15Firstly, what are the sort of conversations you had in the mid-innings and throughout this competition we've seen that
06:20there's no dearth of belief in the team. So how do you inculcate that in the squad?
06:23Look, the best part is that I've played a lot of games I did in gardens, I've seen a lot
06:26of games I did in gardens as well and obviously it's a great chasing ground and we always knew that
06:30it's probably the quickest outfield in the world at the moment and so chase is never out of control.
06:36Till you have wickets in hand you can chase anything on this ground. We saw that in the IPL as
06:40well where 260, 270 were getting chased as well. So we knew that if we can have wickets in hand
06:46we were always under control and again I thought the partnerships are important.
06:49Irrespective of how the format is, which format we are playing, that partnership between Sanju and Surya obviously settled the
06:55nerves as well. So I thought those small small partnerships can make a massive role and someone had to break
06:59the game.
07:00So Tilak broke the game for us in the middle with that cameo and then Sanju batted till the end.
07:04So I thought that it was a very clinical run chase.
07:08Gautam, India have used Bumrah differently in the tournament, sometimes in the power play, sometimes not in the power play.
07:14Today you had three overs for him in the second half of the innings. Is that dependent on the surface,
07:18the opposition, the rhythm? How do you go about planning that?
07:21I think it's more to do with the opposition, where their firepower lies. Especially we knew that West Indies has
07:27got a lot of firepower in the middle with Hitmeyer, Rogman and Scherfane.
07:32And we know that those guys are quality players, those guys can take the game away from us. So we
07:37always knew that we needed someone like Bumrah in the middle to bowl at them and I thought Hardik did
07:41a really good job.
07:41Because sometimes bowling against these guys on this kind of a wicket your fifth bowler actually can always be under
07:46pressure. Hardik and Aksar I thought controlled the game for us because those eight overs were very crucial.
07:51We knew that Arsh, Bumrah and Varun were always about to bowl their four overs. So I thought that for
07:58me today I think the most important thing was how Hardik and Aksar bowled.
08:02Yes, we can keep talking about other three bowlers but that's the reason why we felt that Bumrah was important
08:08in the middle. So every time we have a big over we can go back to Bumrah and try and
08:12control the game.
08:12Because you don't want in a T20 game two back-to-back big overs as well. That can take the
08:17game away from you. So for me I think Bumrah is a banker and we will continue to use him
08:22in different ways.
08:24Coach, in these high-pressure games nerves can play a part irrespective of how experienced a player is but Sanju
08:31never looked like he was overwrought by the occasion. Is that just down to mental strength?
08:37I think it's down to experience as well and mental strength as well. Come the big games, come the knockout
08:42games, come the World Cups, it's all about mental, it's not about skill.
08:44You don't change skill in literally one week or two days or three days. It's about how much can you
08:49absorb the pressure.
08:50And I've always believed in one thing, the guys who absorb the pressure the best will have the best chance
08:54to win this competition.
08:56So I think today was a great sign that we were able to absorb the pressure. As I said that
09:02195 on any wicket on any ground is never easy in a crunch game, in a must-win game.
09:06So I felt that I think absorbing the pressure was the key.
09:09Gautam, in these big tournaments you often say that peaking at the right time after the South Africa defeat India
09:15has had two big wins against Zimbabwe and against West Indies heading into semi-finals and potentially a final.
09:20So do you think that with all the pieces falling together nicely the team is really peaking well?
09:25Look, I don't believe in all this peaking at the right time. You've got to win every game that you
09:28represent your country as simple as it can get.
09:30There is nothing sort of peaking at the right time. It's a short tournament. It's a tournament that comes and
09:36goes very quickly.
09:37So you've got to try and play your A game every time. And it's a format like that where you
09:40can't take any opposition for granted.
09:42So for me, I think all this peaking at the right time, I don't believe in we turn up playing
09:46for the country. We represent 140 crore Indians.
09:49So we want to turn up and win each and every game possible.
09:54Coach, tactically if you could just talk about how things unfold in the dugout because even today we saw a
09:59lot of messages going around.
10:00You had a discussion with Hardik D'Over before he got Rutherford out and he signaled to you after getting
10:06that wicket.
10:07So clearly he was operating to a plan. And the entry points of batters because you have eight batters who
10:11can bat in any and every situation.
10:13So how do you as a coaching unit in consultation with Surya kind of take those calls on when to
10:18introduce a batter or to use your bowling?
10:20Because you use Varun differently. Bumrah was used differently. So is it more instinct driven or do you rely on
10:27a lot on data and videos to take those calls?
10:30I don't believe in data. Honestly, I've never seen a data. I don't even know what data is all about.
10:33I absolutely do not believe in it because I feel it's more about instinct. T20 cricket is about instinct and
10:38backing your instinct as well.
10:41Whatever knowledge I have about the game and T20 format I try and probably give it to the captain and
10:46try and help him out as much as I can.
10:47But ultimately it's the captain that takes the final call. But data and all I don't believe honestly because it's
10:52very overrated.
10:53For me I think we are very fortunate that we've got world class players. We've got guys who we can
10:59use differently because not many teams have that luxury.
11:01Imagine someone like Jaspreet or Archdeep or even Varun. We can use them at any phase of the game as
11:07well come the 20 overs.
11:09And from the batting point of view you've got power. I think that is something which is very important when
11:13you've got power.
11:14You're never away from the chase. You're never away out of the game as well.
11:17You've got people like Tilak who's batted really well in both the innings. He's batted out of his position. He's
11:21batted at No. 3 initially.
11:23But now when we've pushed him at No. 5, 6, see how he's batted. So you've got that talent. You
11:27need to have that talent where you can bat out of positions.
11:29And more importantly positions again are overrated. I feel that it's about going out there and doing the job for
11:35the team and that is what team sport is all about.
11:37And that will continue to be our philosophy going forward.
11:42Could I ask your thoughts on now going to Mumbai and facing England in the semi-final? What are the
11:47challenges there?
11:48Look, they're a world class team. They're a quality team. They've got a lot of quality players as well. And
11:52we all know that Vankhede is a tough venue.
11:55And hopefully I think we can turn up and see that again another opportunity to do something special for the
12:02team, for the country as well.
12:03And hopefully we play our best game as well. That is going to be very important. And hopefully we can
12:07keep ticking all the boxes.
12:09Which is going to be important because we will need a special effort to beat a quality side like England.
12:16Coach, congratulations on a splendid victory. You spoke about Aksha. You spoke about Varun.
12:21But those two boundaries from Shivam Dube changed the course of the match.
12:25Is the recipe of your success dependent on contributions from everybody?
12:31You have created a system where everybody contributes in a little way and that combines to create a delicious dish.
12:38Look, glad you're talking about every contribution because for too many years we've only spoken about certain contributions.
12:44This is a team sport and this will always remain a team sport. For me, I think Shivam's, those two
12:49boundaries are as important as Sanju's 90.
12:50Because if you wouldn't have been able to hit those two boundaries, probably that 95 you wouldn't have even spoken
12:54about.
12:55So it's not only about 95 years he played a special inning but those small contributions actually helps you win
13:01games as well.
13:01The big contribution makes headlines. The small contribution, the contribution that can help the team win across that line is
13:08going to be very important.
13:09And that's why I say that this is going to be the philosophy going forward till I'm there.
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