Mumbai: Excessive amount of cricket, with the season running for almost 12 months, has forced teams across the world to manage and preserve players from being overworked and injured.
The nature of the formats also varies so much that team managements look for different sets of players in Test matches, ODIs and T20 Internationals, with only a few being chosen for all formats.
However, Team India could see a change in such traditional approach, if newly-appointed coach Gautam Gambhir’s conviction is an indication.
“I’m a very strong believer in one thing — if you’re good, you should be playing all three formats. I’ve never been a big believer in injury management. If you get injured, you go get recovered, as simple as it gets. When you’re playing international cricket and you’re good enough, you ask any of the top players, they want to play all the three formats… They don’t want to be labelled as red-ball bowlers or white-ball bowlers. Injuries are part of sportsman’s life,” Gambhir told Star Sports after BCCI officially named him as Rahul Dravid’s successor.
Insisting that capable players “should be playing all three formats”, Gambhir addressed the issue of specialist cricketers.
“I am not a big believer in identifying people that we’re going to keep for Test matches, other formats or we’re going to manage his injuries or workload… Professional cricketers have got a very small span when you’re playing for your country, and you want to play as much as you can. When you’re in very good form, go ahead and play all three formats,” the two-time World Cup winner added.
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja announced their retirements from T20 Internationals after India lifted the T20 World Cup in Barbados on June 29.
It remains to be seen if Gambhir pushes for the likes of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Hardik Pandya to be picked for Tests, ODIs as well as T20Is.
On his message for the players, Gambhir urged them to play with honesty.
“There’s only one message, that try and play with honesty. Try and be as honest as you can with your profession. Results will follow. When I picked up the bat, I never thought of the results. I never thought that I was going to score these many runs. I’ve always believed that I have to be as honest as I can to my profession. Live on certain principles, live on certain values. Try and do the right things. Try and do things even if you think the whole world is against you. But your heart believes that you’re doing the right thing for the best interest of the team,” said Gambhir who top-scored in both the 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup finals which India won.
The 42-year-old Gambhir also achieved the rare ‘double’ of winning the IPL as a player (2012, 2014 with Kolkata Knight Riders) and coach (2024 again with KKR).
Gambhir’s maiden assignment as India coach will be the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka, where the men in blue will play 3 T20Is and as many ODIs.
