Gambhir felt like the record chase of 406 against West Indies was unfair to bowlers.
Gambhir felt like the record chase of 406 against West Indies was unfair to bowlers.
The second ODI between India and the West Indies has reignited the spark of 50-over matches by leaps and bounds. When the West Indies thrashed the Indian bowlers to build a mega score of 405, all hope seemed lost. But then, a familiar name returned to the crease to let Indian fans cling to what little hope was left. Rohit Sharma pounced upon the Caribbean bowlers to smash a century and give the Indian batting lineup a stable foundation to work on.
Then the captain of the team took the helm of the ship. Shubham Gill stood on the pitch until the very end of the innings to drop a hefty double century and safely cruise India to victory. In doing so, he reminded Indians of the prime Rohit-Dhawan partnerships and helped the team chase down a record total. What's more fascinating is India only lost two wickets during their innings and finished the matches within 44 overs. Now Indian fans are busy celebrating their new achievement, but the coach of the Indian team is very unimpressed.
Gambhir wants better pitches that don't ruin the efforts of the bowlers
Now it is rather peculiar of Gambhir to criticize the match. The head coach of the India team has been receiving a lot of hate and criticism from the public. While the Indian team has been flawless in T20 internationals, people accused Gambhir of sidelining longer formats.
So when Team India gave the fans a fiery match with a new record to their name, Gambhir should've doubled down and silenced the haters. Yet, he is more focused on improving the quality of the game being played.
"Look, if I have to be absolutely honest, I feel I think there has to be a bit more contest between bat and ball, because I think you talk about cricket—but this is not cricket; this is only batting," Gambhir commented.
"But if you ask me as a genuine cricket fan and as a coach, because I have to have sympathy for the bowlers as well. When you bowl on this kind of a wicket, it's not fair for the bowlers," he continues.
Now Gambhir raises a very important point about Indian pitches. Lately, Indian cricket pitches are becoming more and more flat. They actively give advantage to the batsman and end up ruining a bowler's spell. While this works in creating fireworks and ceiling shots all around the stadium, it ends up taking away the importance of the bowlers.
Ravichandran Ashwin had recently called the Indian team a bully for using these pitches to create a hyper-aggressive batting lineup. In order to cut short the Indian batsmen from scoring lots of runs, Ashwin actively suggested international teams use slow-turning pitches. Gambhir would not want something like that to derail the momentum of his team. As such, he wants to mitigate the damage before disaster strikes.
