New Delhi: New India head coach Gautam Gambhir has said that he is not a big fan of specialization and wants all the Indian players to participate in all the formats. Gambhir has said that he’s is a stronger believer in just one thing that each and every player should play the red-ball as well as white-ball format.
Gambhir further said that if a player is good, he should not limit himself to just playing in a particular format and should explore and render his services everywhere. Gambhir was speaking to Star Sports in his first interview after being appointed as the new head coach of the Indian team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday.
Hint for players avoiding longer formats
While the comments in his interview suggested that they were all generic but indirectly, a hint was given to all the players who have been avoiding longer formats of the game. Few months back, Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan lost their BCCI central contracts for not playing the longer formats and domestic cricket and just focusing on the franchise cricket.
Hardik Pandya is another example as the flamboyant all-rounder has not participated in a Test match since September 2018, after he featured in 11 Tests. Recently, former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar backed Hardik to play in the longest format and also said that he will help India win the WTC.
“When you’re playing international cricket and you’re good enough, you ask any of the top players, they want to play all the three formats. They don’t want to stay and they don’t want to be labelled as red ball bowler or white ball bowler. I am not a big believer in identifying people that we’re going to keep him for Test matches or other formats. We’re going to manage his injury and workload and stuff. Professional cricketers, you’ve got a very small span when you’re playing for your country and you want to play as much as you can. And when you’re in very good form, go ahead and play all the three formats,” Gambhir said.
Newly-appointed Gautam Gambhir has said that he is not a big fan of specialization and wants all the Indian players to participate in all the formats. Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
