new delhi: The Indian cricket team is not where it “wants to be” in terms of its preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup yet but head coach Gautam Gambhir says there is enough time in hand to get there.
In an interview with ‘bcci.tv’, Gambhir said the players needed to take their fitness to the next level as India prepare to defend the title at home.
“It has been a very transparent dressing room, it has been a very honest dressing room and that is how we want this dressing room to be. I think we still aren’t where we want to be come the T20 World Cup,” he said.
“From the fitness point of view, I think we still aren’t where we want to be come the T20 World Cup. And that is exactly the conversation that we’ve had with the boys as well. We want to be absolutely sharp. We want to be fit. We want to move quicker. The fitter we are, the more mentally strong we are. Because come the pressure games come the pressure situation, the more physically strong you are, the more mentally strong you are. We still have three months to be where we want to be,” said the former India opener.
The T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in India and Sri Lanka in February-March next year.
Gambhir also spoke about the logic behind using trump card Jasprit Bumrah for three overs in the powerplay during the recent Asia Cup that India won. “A lot of people relate to this T20 side as a very aggressive batting lineup. For me I think bowling Jassi 3 in the first six was an even more aggressive option with the ball. We don’t want to be a side which is only known as an aggressive batting order, we want to be a side which should be known as an aggressive side overall,” he said.
“We wanted to go that way as well (Bumrah bowling three in PP), we wanted to see how it pans out, we wanted to see where it takes us in future as well, and I thought that Asia Cup, it has really worked well for us, because bowling Jassi in the first three obviously makes us win the powerplay most of the time ...and then obviously we got two wicket-taking options in the middle with Varun (Chakravarthy) and Kuldeep (Yadav), so it gives them a lot of leverage to bowl with freedom in the middle phase, and we can take wickets all the time...I think it was a very aggressive move.”