Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has showered praise on Gautam Gambhir for revolutionising India’s T20I batting. Under Gambhir’s tutelage, Indian batters have adopted an aggressive approach and they have been able to reap rewards.
Despite losing regular wickets on numerous occasions, Indian batters are continuing with their aggressive approach. India has been ticking the right boxes in the shortest format and have taken an impregnable lead of 3-0 in the five-match series against New Zealand.
Aakash Chopra said in a video uploaded on X, “Gautam Gambhir deserves credit. When we don’t hesitate to criticise, then why hesitate to praise. I’m talking about India’s T20 batting approach. That approach is not the future, it’s reality. We have understood it late. The formula was the same. There are 11 players and 20 overs and this is what you can achieve if played fearlessly. India weren’t able to do it before.”
Chopra reckons the opposition won’t feel safe despite putting 300 runs on the board against India.
“Even now, ODI and T20I series takes place. New Zealand’s bowling unit hasn’t changed but India’s approach changed. The moment we started dominating and decimating, we broke the opposition’s resolve. Now they are saying, even 300 might not be enough because this team is different.”
The renowned commentator recalled that the previous team under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy didn’t play this aggressively.
He said, “Gautam Gambhir did the work. Previously, the talk was to play aggressively under Rohit Sharma. Rohit did play that way and walked the talk. Secondly, the T20I side was overlapping the ODI team. A lot of overlap used to happen and the approach was different. Not everyone played aggressively. But the present side is a team of assassins and of destroyers. Whether it’s Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh.
“Except for Pandya, no one is part of the ODI team. Everyone plays T20Is, so they play fearlessly. That’s where Gambhir deserves a lot of credit. The criticism was right. India lost BGT, lost at home to New Zealand and South Africa. The graph went down in ODI cricket too and the criticism is right even there.”
The fourth T20I between India and New Zealand will be played at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.
