India have lost two back-to-back matches in the ongoing tri-series in the West Indies. Is it a sign of fatigueIJ Is India playing too badIJ Or, they are missing the charismatic leadership of MS DhoniIJ Ask out-of-favour opener Gautam Gambhir and you’ll get a straight forward reply, much like his straight drive.
“Not at all...If you talk about fatigue, then it should not only affect the Indian team but also the other teams. They should also get affected by it. Sri lanka is playing the same amount of cricket as India. If other team has played well, we must acknowledge it. There efforts should be recognised,” Gambhir said on the sidelines of a promotional event on Wednesday.
The Indians got barely a few days to rejoice after their Champions Trophy victory in England before boarding the flight to the Caribbeans.
However, Gambhir warned against reading too much into the losses and said it’s part and parcel of the game. “It happens in every sport, there are bad and good phases and these things happen. It’s part and parcel of cricket,” Gambhir said.
The Delhi player refused to comment on Virat Kohli’s captaincy, who is leading the national side in the absence of regular skipper Dhoni, who has been ruled out of the series due to a hamstring injury. “No comments...Thank you,” was Gambhir’s curt reply.
Gambhir, whose form has been patchy of late, had hired the services of WV Raman, the former India opening batsman, as a personal consultant for a week to fine-tune his batting skills in his bid to make a comeback into the Indian team. “A cricketer always work on his game whenever he gets the time and I was also doing the same thing. It’s not like I was working on my batting technique,” he said.
Gambhir welcomed BCCI’s decision of hosting Ranji Trophy matches only during weekends and providing a four-day gap between the fixtures after third round. “It’s a good concept and the BCCI has done a right thing. It would be good to have four days gap and matches taking place on weekends. I support the steps taken by the BCCI,” he said.
Talking about injuries to cricketers, Gambhir said it can hit an athlete anytime and it should not be attributed to excess of work. “Injuries can happen anytime and it is not necessary that it happens only because of excess cricket being played these days,” he said.