Are we living in India's era of dominance in ICC events? Coach Gautam Gambhir reacts

Here's the full excerpt of the press conference of Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav after the T20 World Cup final against New Zealand.

[Reporter:]

Surya, just too many records with this win becoming the first team to win consecutively, the first team to win three titles, the first team to win playing at home. Just how is the feeling? What are you feeling right now? How has the celebration been? What is the plan ahead? And just how are you soaking it all in as a captain, as a leader? You had said in the beginning at the captain's PC that call me a leader because captain when you call me there can be some sort of complacency. So being the leader just your entire journey this World Cup win - what does it mean to you?

[Surya Kumar Yadav:]

Firstly happy women's day to you and obviously very happy, but it'll take a little bit of time to sink in. We have just come out of a game. It was a good game. Playing at home. When we wake up tomorrow and go back home, I don't know where we are going, but it will be a special feeling. But yeah, very excited, whatever happened in the last two years post 2024 T20 World Cup until today. I think it was unbelievable and the feeling I think, currently I don't know how do I share it, but it has been a wonderful journey.

[Reporter:]

You are the first coach to win two ICC trophy’s and also won an Asia cup, and this time you’ll got the trophy also - what do you have to say to this?

[Gautam Gambhir:]

The first thing is that the players have made me win. I have been saying this for a long time that you are as good a coach or as good a captain as your players. So I think credit needs to go to the players. The way, the professionalism and most importantly the bravery with which this tournament was played. Like the captain said, we play differently in bilateral tournaments, but ICC tournaments are played differently. I think we wanted to change that. I'm sure everyone has seen that. If you make more than 250 runs in the semifinal and final, that just shows the quality, bravery, and courage with which this tournament was played.

[Reporter:]

I have a question for you. There were many doubters who talked a lot on social media when the team doesn't do well. But your effort behind the scenes, who stays with the players, whoever does well or not, if you talk about your individual process, how you handle the players, if you could explain that how much effort you put in being the head coach of the team. You have done mentorship and of course you have done captaincy in IPL. But as a head coach of the team, how different is this challenge for you to take this team to where it is right now?

[Gautam Gambhir:]

First of all, my accountability is not towards any social media. My accountability is mostly towards those 30 people who are sitting in the dressing room. And not towards anyone. Because if I can work honestly with them, if we can put in the hard word honestly - my accountability was never before, nor will it be today or in the future. Then even if I win two ICC trophies as a coach, it really doesn't matter because in the future, I think those 30 people matter the most to me in my coaching tenure, no one else matters.

The most important thing in this T20 format was that we didn't want to be afraid of losing. Because if you are afraid of losing, you never win. I always believe that high risk, high reward is very important in this format. Because many times it happens that you play in a conservative way. I would have been happier if we had been out at 110-120. But our target was always to make 250 runs. But we didn’t want to play the 160 – 180 runs cricket. I think for too long, we played cricket with 160-170 runs. But for the last two years, it was the captain's philosophy, the captain's ideology – obviously, if the captain and coach are not on the same page, it can never be possible. The captain himself wanted to play high risk, high reward. And I think the credit needs to go to the captain as well.

[Reporter:]

I just wanted to ask how it was for the two of you to work together. Since you came together in 2024, the challenges you took along, there were a lot of selection calls which were debated, questioned, this player was dropped, now this player is being played, that player is being played. But you seem to have a plan figured out for this team right through, since that Sri Lanka series. So, when you look back, how was it for you working with Surya? I'm not saying the partnership is ending, but the last two years and Surya same, how was it for you to work with the coach? You have spent a lot of time with him in the IPL but when you work for a team and a goal is clear that you have to defend the World Cup, you have to be the first team to win a title at home. So if the two of you can just talk about working with each other in the last two years.

[Surya Kumar Yadav:]

I think I have played cricket with Gauti bhai for four years. I knew from the beginning what our expectations would be from each other.