India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir praised captain Suryakumar Yadav for his phenomenal leadership in the T20 World Cup 2026. Gambhir admitted that SKY made his life easier throughout the tournament.
Suryakumar Yadav’s team registered a comprehensive 96-run win against New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad on Sunday to defend their title. India became the first team to win the T20 World Cup title on three occasions and also the first host nation to win the T20I showpiece.
“I think he’s a phenomenal leader. I think he has made my life a lot easier in this format because I think the way he keeps the atmosphere really light. I think the way he handles the boys, the way he has conversations with them, that is something which is fantastic to have. Because then someone like me can focus on how the tactical things should run because you know that you’ve got someone like Surya who I have worked with for a long time when I was captain with KKR, he was a vice captain. So I know the how he operates. So, he has made my life a lot easier in this format,” Gambhir said on ANI podcast.
Meanwhile, SKY scored a match-winning knock of 84 runs off just 49 balls in the opening clash against the USA after India had their chips down at 77-6. Yadav scored 242 runs in nine matches of the tournament at an average of 30.25 and a strike rate of 136.72.
Gambhir said the players always played for the team as they were able to put their personal milestone on the backseat.
“I don’t think so. I think there was always a team first philosophy and more importantly, when you go in a big tournament like this, you don’t look at individual performances. You don’t need to look at individual performances. Aaj Agar hum World Cup nahi jeete hote to shayad mera interview nahi le rahe hote. Aur dusri cheej, shayad itna koi baat nahi karta because individual performances koi yaad bhi nahi karta. Aaj agar aap mujhse puchho ki semifinal mein England ki taraf se kis kisne run banaya aapko yaad bhi nahi hoga (If we hadn’t won the World Cup today, I probably wouldn’t be interviewed. And secondly, probably no one would talk about it as much because no one remembers individual performances. If you were to ask me today who scored runs for England in the semi-finals, you wouldn’t even remember),” he said.
“So when you go and play such kind of tournament, its about who wins the tournament, which team wins the tournament. So for me, I think individual performances when it comes to big tournaments do not make a big difference,” Gambhir added.
Indian players will next participate in IPL 2026.
