Gautam Gambhir hails MS Dhoni's appointment as Team India mentor for T20 World Cup

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir, a part of the Indian team which won the inaugural edition of ICC T20 World Cup in 2007 under the captaincy of MS Dhoni, hails Dhoni’s inclusion into the Indian team as a mentor. Gambhir feels this decision for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup was taken, keeping in mind his experience of handling pressure in important games. The 15-man Indian team for the T20 World Cup was announced by BCCI secretary Jay Shah along with the news of Dhoni agreeing to play the role of a mentor for Team India on Wednesday, September 8. Gautam Gambhir while speaking on the Star Sports’ show Follow the Blues expressed his take on the surprise inclusion of Dhoni.

Gambhir while speaking on Star Sports about Dhoni and Team India’s relationship, said, “A good story to have, but I'm sure his (MS Dhoni) role will be defined because you've got the head coach, the assistant coach, and the bowling coach. So, I'm sure there has to be something from Virat Kohli or Ravi Shastri on what they would want apart from what they already have because India has been very successful in T20 Cricket. It's not like India has struggled in T20 Cricket”.

"Had India struggled in T20 cricket, they might have had to get someone from outside": Gautam Gambhir

India has won six out of the last eight T20 International series that they have played. The series with South Africa in 2019 was drawn and India lost the last series they played against Sri Lanka 2-1. India is considered a strong T20 unit as they currently stand second to table topper England in the ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings. While speaking about India’s performance in the shortest format of the game, Gambhir further said, “Had India struggled in T20 cricket, they might have had to get someone from outside, but Dhoni's experience and his mindset of handling pressure in those crunched games could be one reason why they've got him as a mentor -- not purely from the skill point of view, because these guys have got all the skill, to go out there and deliver. It's probably, how to handle pressure during those important games because India had missed out on those important games -- especially the knockout games. So probably MS' Dhoni's experience of captaining this side and handling that pressure in those important games could be a huge advantage for young players. And you have to remember that most of these guys are young, for example, your Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy or any of these batters play -- they've not been to any of the World Cups. So, I'm sure MS will share his experience”. 

He further added, “That probably is the only thing I can think of; apart from that, I don't see MS Dhoni change anything from a skill point of view. Ravi Shastri's been there, Vikram Rathour has been there, and the entire support staff is there. So, probably MS can only add his experience to the players while probably going into the crunch games”. India start their ICC T20 World Cup campaign on October 24 against Pakistan in a high-voltage clash.

With inputs from ANI

Image: PTI