The latest emphasis on the value of players playing in all forms of the game came from former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, who is about to embark on his new journey as the Head Coach of the Indian Team.
With India’s T20 World Cup victory on June 29, Rahul Dravid’s stint came to an end. Gambhir was then appointed. In contrast to his predecessor, Gambhir has coaching experience from his time spent mentoring IPL teams, most notably helping Kolkata Knight Riders win the IPL 2024 championship.
His tenure as India’s head coach runs through December 31, 2027. He will take charge of the team’s July–August white-ball tour of Sri Lanka.
Gambhir discussed his outlook on player management and format choice in an interview with Star Sports. He’s a big believer in cricketers who can play well in every format.
One thing I really believe in is that if you’re excellent, you should play all three formats. Injury management has never really appealed to me; if you get hurt, you go get better. as easy as it gets. Any of the best players will tell you that they want to play all three formats of cricket when they are playing for their country and are good enough,” he remarked.
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A sportsman’s life is filled with injuries: In Gautam Gambhir
Gambhir’s system, consistency of play takes precedence over workload control. The veteran feels that rather than giving up on a particular format to manage workload, a player should play all of them in order to recuperate from injuries.
A sportsman’s life is filled with injuries. Additionally, if you participate in all three formats, you should be playing all three. If you get hurt, you heal and return. I don’t think it’s a good idea to identify someone just in case we want to preserve them for trials or other forms. He continued, “We’re going to monitor his workload, injuries, and other things. When representing your country, professional cricket players have a very short window of time, therefore you want to play as much as you can. “And when you’re playing all three formats, go ahead and do it,” he said.
Also Read: In all three formats, Jasprit Bumrah is a bowler who comes only once in a generation. Paras Mhambrey
Concerning player labelling, Gambhir feels that a cricket player should be able to represent their country in all forms of the game and not be restricted to any particular format.
He said, “They don’t want to stay, and they don’t want to be called red ball or white ball bowlers.”
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