Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 3 (ANI): While establishing the intention of hitting 250-plus scores regularly in T20Is, India head coach Gautam Gambhir lavished praise on his players for embracing “high-risk, high-reward cricket”, which allowed them to fetch a 4-1 series win over England.
India’s ideology to play an aggressive brand of cricket, irrespective of the situation, was evident in the previous three T20Is against England. In Pune, England fast bowler Saqib Mahmood left India in tatters by clinching three wickets and topping it up with a maiden in the second over.
Despite facing an unprecedented setback, India batters kept the ante up and attacked the English bowlers to end their innings on a fighting total of 181/9, which proved to be too much for the tourists.
On Sunday in Mumbai, wickets kept falling from one end, but Abhishek Sharma went all guns blazing, lifting the hosts to a record-shattering total of 247/9, India’s fourth-highest in the format.
“That’s the kind of T20 cricket we want to play. We don’t want to fear losing a game of cricket. We want to play high-risk, high-reward cricket and these guys have adopted that ideology, that policy really well. And I think the ideology of this T20 team is based on selflessness and fearlessness. And I think in the last six months, these guys have done it day in, day out,” Gambhir told the host broadcaster.
“We want to try and get to 250-260 regularly. And in trying to do that, there’ll be games where we’ll get bundled out for 120-130. And that is what T20 cricket is all about. And unless and until you don’t play that high-risk cricket, you won’t get those big rewards as well. Most importantly, I think we’re on the right track. Come those big tournaments, we want to still continue playing this way, and we don’t want to fear losing anything,” he added.
One of the main reasons behind India’s success was England’s inability to read Varun Chakravarthy’s spin. The Indian mystery spinner remained an unsolved puzzle for the English batters.
He finished the series at the top of the wicket-taking chart with a whopping 14 scalps, at an average of 9.85 and an economy rate of 7.66.
“I think his transformation from IPL to international T20 cricket has been phenomenal. And this series was probably the benchmark as well because England is a high-quality side. They’ve got some really quality cricketers and the kind of surfaces we’ve played on – I think they were fantastic batting wickets, and the way he’s bowled those tough overs has been phenomenal,” Gambhir said of Varun. (ANI)
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