Gambhir backs bowlers, says Guwahati pitch offered little assistance

India head coach Gautam Gambhir called for a better contest between bat and ball after India's 406-run chase against West Indies in Guwahati. He backed young bowlers to handle pressure situations while praising Shubman Gill's growth and leadership

Hyderabad: India head coach Gautam Gambhir called for a better contest between bat and ball after the second ODI against the West Indies in Guwahati, saying the pitch offered little assistance to bowlers.

“If I have to be absolutely honest, I feel there has to be a bit more contest between bat and ball. This is not cricket, this is only batting. Because imagine a young bowler bowling on this wicket, and the opposition getting 400 and then we go on to chase 400,” Gambhir said.

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Speaking on JioStar, Gambhir said, “Obviously, for the records, for the crowd, it’s outstanding, but if you ask me as a genuine cricket fan and as a coach, because I have to have sympathy for the bowlers as well. When you bowl on this kind of a wicket, it’s not fair for the bowlers. So, we’ve got to give something to the bowlers so there’s at least something which they can work with.”

On what needs to be done to ensure a better balance between bat and ball, Gambhir said bowlers needed some margin for error.

“You need a bit of margin for the bowlers. Often, you can’t be hard on bowlers, because sometimes bowling figures are such that they haven’t bowled as poorly as their figures suggest. Because the margin is very small. Plus, with five fielders inside, two new balls, and the kind of power-hitting there is now, bowlers don’t really have many options.”

“That is why, as a coach, as a support staff, the first thing you look at is: Were they able to execute their bowling or their plans properly? If they were able to do that, then you aren’t that hard on them. If you get too hard just looking at their analysis, then we will never be able to develop bowlers.

“Auqib Nabi was playing his first game. So somewhere, you need to give them a bit of support and keep a bit of an extra cushion for them. But unfortunately, there wasn’t much for any bowler in this game,” he explained.

On Shubman Gill’s growth as captain, Gambhir said he was more impressed by the responsibility the opener had taken on than by his records.

“I’m not going to talk about his records because records are meant to be broken. But I think the responsibility that he’s taken, because a lot of times we feel that once you become a captain of two formats, you don’t want your performance to go down, but his performance has only gone up since he took over as a captain in England.”

“Since then, we’ve seen the evolution of Shubman, not only in white-ball cricket, but in red-ball cricket as well. He’s got a great future ahead if he keeps his head down. He ticks all the boxes, he’s a nice guy, he’s got a lot of respect in the dressing room, people listen to him and, more importantly, his performances are showing as well,” he said.

“And the most impressive thing that I think of him is that he’s becoming a bowlers’ captain. He knows how difficult it is for the bowlers in this format, and once you do that, you will always earn that respect in the dressing room,” Gambhir said.

On exposing players to pressure situations ahead of the 2027 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, Gambhir said the second ODI was an opportunity to test young players under pressure.

“It wasn’t a dead rubber, not at all. We were 1-0 up in the series, but we gave Auqib an opportunity. We could have given him the opportunity in the next match too, when it’s a dead rubber, but in a dead rubber, you don’t have that pressure which comes with the pressure of winning a series. And we all know that the World Cup is all about pressure.

“Cricket isn’t going to change much, bat and ball won’t change, only the pressure will be different because the World Cup comes once in four years.”

Gambhir also backed the decision to expose young pacer Gurnoor to difficult phases of the innings.

“For example, having Gurnoor bowl in the first 10 overs and then bowling at the death, I know people will talk about his analysis, but the more he bowls in tough conditions, in tough situations, the better it is for Indian cricket.

“Because you can have him bowl in the middle overs and get him to improve his analysis or stats and make him bowl defensively, but the more we expose them at such times, the better it is for Indian cricket,” he explained.

JioStar expert Sunil Gavaskar, meanwhile, praised Shubman Gill for his record-breaking captain’s knock.

“Yes, Shubman is going to be the man who’s going to show the current and the next generation how to bat in what situations, how to keep your cool, how to pace your chase. What we saw in this game was just incredible. 406 runs to chase, never easy. It really was a superb innings, a captain’s innings.

“He wanted to be, as a captain, right there till the end and finish it himself. That is the hallmark of really great players,” Gavaskar said.

“And that’s exactly what leadership is all about. Be there right till the end. He deals with every ball as if it’s the first ball that he’s facing. That was the secret of Sir Don Bradman’s batting. Sir Don Bradman used to say that every ball that he faced, even if he was batting on 200-plus, he played thinking as if he was on zero, as if it was his first ball.

“And I think that’s exactly what you see with Shubman Gill, one of the reasons why you see him play risk-free cricket, and he’s got this wide range of shots,” the former India opener explained.