New Delhi, 05 October (H.S.): The Indian team, which has won the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup twice in succession, will begin its home season with a five-match T20 International series against two-time world champions West Indies. Ahead of the series, India head coach Gautam Gambhir spoke about his experience of working with new T20I captain Shreyas Iyer and his conversations with young batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi.

Speaking on JioStar’s programme ‘Follow the Blues: Gautam Gambhir Unfiltered’, Gambhir lavished praise on Shreyas Iyer’s leadership qualities. He said Iyer’s greatest strength was his selflessness.

Gambhir said, “My first experience with Shreyas was when I went to KKR in 2024, where he was obviously the captain. The best thing I liked about Shreyas was that he was actually willing to give up his batting position at times. He was so flexible that he was perfectly comfortable if someone else went in ahead of him. It is very rare for a captain, who is perhaps also the main batter of your team, to give up his batting position for someone else in the interest of the team, whether it is to give another player an opportunity to make an impact or from the perspective of maintaining a left-right batting combination. That was when I realised that the first and most important quality of a good leader is how selfless you are.”

He further said, “Shreyas possesses that quality, and he can carry it forward as a major strength during his journey as captain. You can be hardworking, disciplined and fit; you can be the world’s No. 1 batter. But if you are not selfless, everything else becomes meaningless. Shreyas has all these qualities, and, on top of that, he also has that sense of selflessness.”

Vaibhav Will Have to Wait for His Opportunity

Speaking about his conversations with Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Gambhir said the young player was in excellent form, but because of the presence of players who had been performing consistently for a long time, he might have to wait for his opportunity.

Gambhir said, “This was a new experience for me as well. Yes, he was in excellent form, but I explained to him that sometimes, because of players who have been performing consistently for a long time, you have to wait for your opportunity. And there is another thing: social media or the noise outside does not decide the playing XI. It depends on who in the dressing room, or which player the coach and captain believe, can win us the match, or what the best playing XI is, and who has been performing consistently for such a long time.”

He said, “Because if Vaibhav plays today, then I will have a difficult conversation with the player we leave out, whether it is Abhishek or Sanju. So, we cannot suddenly ignore the combination that has made such an impact over the last one-and-a-half to two years and drop them after three or four failures simply to give an opportunity to a young player who is extremely talented and also in very good form. So, sometimes you have to wait for your opportunity, because we want to create a sense of security in that dressing room.”

Importance of Maintaining Consistency

Gambhir also stressed the importance of maintaining consistency within the team and making the right decisions rather than merely making popular ones.

He said, “For me, it is very easy to make popular decisions, but perhaps the most difficult thing for me is to make the right decisions. And we have made the right decision by continuing with Sanju and Abhishek. In the history of the game, no team has gone unbeaten from one World Cup to the next and then won the World Cup again. Suddenly, one poor series or three poor matches here and there does not make them bad players, nor does it make us a bad team. Therefore, it was very important for us to maintain consistency.”

The first match of the five-match T20 International series between India and West Indies will be played on October 6 from 7 p.m. onwards.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar