Hardik Pandya and Gautam Gambhir in Team India's dressing room© X (Twitter)
Newly appointed India head coach, Gautam Gambhir began his career in the new role with a 3-0 T20I series triumph against Sri Lanka. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav's captaincy received its due credit in the post-series dressing room speech given by head coach Gambhir while all-rounder Hardik Pandya also had some special words for his Mumbai Indians teammate. The comments from Gambhir and Hardik were shared by the BCCI in a video published on social media.
"Guys congratulations on a great series win. Congratulations to Surya as well, outstanding captaincy and more importantly with the bat as well. Guys, I asked for something before the start of the game and you absolutely delivered it. This is what happens when you keep fighting. You don't give up. These kind of games happen, and the only way these games can happen is when we keep fighting on every delivery and for every run.
"And this was the example we keep getting better, we keep improving our skills as well, because we need to still get better on playing on wickets like these, because we might end up getting these kinds of wickets. So we should first assess the situation and conditions really quickly and what is the par score as well. There is a lot of learning from this game, but more important than not this is a great series win."
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 31, 2024
The India head coach asked the players to increase their fitness levels high when they return for the upcoming series against Bangladesh.
"Some of the guys, who will not be part of the 50-over format, will have a longer break, you absolutely deserve it, but make sure when you come back for the Bangladesh series, keep your skills and specially the fitness levels high. You don't want to come for that series thinking that, okay, I can just turn up and probably deliver for the team. So make sure that from the fitness point of view, the fitness levels are right up there. Okay, congratulations once again, Hardik is going to wrap it up."
Hardik Pandya also shared a few words after Gambhir was done talking, and even he had nothing else but praise for India's new T20I captain, Suryakumar.
"First of all, well done! I think in batting first, we were challenged, and conditions were difficult, but I think after losing those early wickets Shubman (Gill) and Riyan (Parag) the way they batted and created the partnership was brilliant. When you speak about situational awareness, I think that point of time, what you both did was very, very important. And that gave us a platform to at least reach to a decent total which our bowlers made sure bowl at the right areas. Especially, I always emphasize on the fact that the lower order has to come and chip in and I think Washi (Washington Sundar) and those 8 runs by Bishi (Ravi Bishnoi) were very important."
"As Gauti bhai mentioned, Surya, well done on making sure that the way you rotated the bowlers, making sure, showing faith in the bowlers, which you gave in the last couple of overs. That was brilliant. And as a bowling group, obviously it was fantastic everyone chipped in. Washi, well done buddy. When you win games like this, eventually it kind of takes us forward. We are taking step by step. But this was definitely a right step going forward for the future and well done to all the guys who are playing ODIs, kill it! Continue!," he said.
India will now move on to the 3-match ODI series against Sri Lanka, of which, Suryakumar would not be a part.
With ANI Inputs