Gambhir lauds India’s courage after T20 World Cup triumph

India coach Gautam Gambhir on Sunday praised his team’s “bravery and courage” in racking up big totals to win a record third T20 World Cup title.

Suryakumar Yadav’s India hammered New Zealand by 96 runs in a one-sided final in Ahmedabad after they posted a massive 255-5 batting first.

Opener Sanju Samson’s 89 laid the platform for India to score more than 250 for a second straight match, after their seven-run semi-final win over England, and for the third time in the tournament.

“If you score 250-plus runs in the semi-final and final then it shows the kind of quality and the kind of bravery and courage we played the tournament,” Gambhir told reporters.

“We did not want to fear losing, high-risk, high-reward is an important thing in this format,” he said.

“I would have been happy to get bowled out for 110-120 but our target is 250. Captain also wanted to play this brand of cricket, so credit needs to go to the captain as well.”

Gambhir, who replaced Rahul Dravid as coach after the T20 World Cup triumph in 2024, was underfire coming into the tournament after home defeats in other formats.

India were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in a Test series last year and New Zealand won an ODI series 2-1.

“My accountability is not towards any social media talk, my accountability is towards the 30 in my team,” said Gambhir on facing criticism.

“Whether I have won two ICC (International Cricket Council) trophies or not those 30 people matter to me the most.”

India won the ODI Champions Trophy and the T20 Asia Cup last year under two-time World Cup winner Gambhir.

Gambhir, 44, credited captain Suryakumar, who sat alongside the coach in the press conference, for the T20 success.

“Surya has made my life a lot easier in this format, I think he is a phenomenal leader,” said Gambhir.

“My simple philosophy with Surya is that milestones don’t matter, trophies do. Too long in Indian cricket we have spoken about milestones and I hope till the time I am there we don’t talk about milestones.”

Samson, a wicketkeeper-batsman, stood out as the team’s star after he made a stunning comeback in the team midway to score three successive half-centuries.

The in-form Samson, who hit 97 not out and 89 in his previous two innings, blasted five fours and eight sixes in the final to be named player of the tournament.

“Sanju to get three in a row and to do that after coming back it takes show much of character and courage where you know maybe your career is on line,” said Gambhir.

“Making a comeback like that and playing those kind of innings with such flamboyance, you need to be a special talent and he deserves a lot more than he has got till now.”

Meanwhile, millions of euphoric Indians celebrated on Monday what cricket great Virat Kohli hailed as a “phenomenal” display in winning the T20 World Cup for a record third time.

India became the first team to lift the trophy on home soil, the first to retain it and are now the most successful side in the history of the global showpiece.

Indian newspapers praised Suryakumar Yadav’s men for their dominant performance, with the mass-circulation Times of India saying they had rewritten history in “bold strokes”.

“India didn’t so much win the title as stroll to it. It was a coronation rather than a final,” it said in a front-page report headlined, “Threemendous: T20 kings keep the crown.”

The English-language Indian Express said it was the first time India had won a showpiece event without a “larger-than-life megastar”.

It credited coach Gautam Gambhir with “sowing the seeds” of belief in the team, calling him the “architect” of India’s triumph.

Cricket is a national obsession in the world’s most populous country, woven deeply into its cultural and social fabric.

Star players enjoy adulation and the game serves as a rare unifying force in an otherwise diverse nation.

As the victory became inevitable late Sunday, thousands of delirious fans converged on Delhi’s India Gate monument waving tricolour flags, beating drums and dancing to blaring Bollywood hits.

Drivers came out of their cars on the broad avenues around the monument to join impromptu street celebrations that stretched long into the next day. The scene was replicated in cities, towns and villages across the country.

Agencies