We Will Support Players to Play High-Risk Cricket, Gautam Gambhir

Ahead of their three-match Test series against New Zealand, which will start on Wednesday, India head coach Gautam Gambhir said that the team think-tank will continue to back their batters in playing high-risk cricket in the longer format.

In its last Test match, which it played against Bangladesh at a rain-hit Green Park Stadium in Kanpur, India came all guns blazing in its first innings by setting new records for the fastest 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 scores in the longer format, before declaring at 285/9.

Chasing 95 in 17.2, the team led by Rohit Sharma completed a blazing win and sealed the series 2-0. "We want people to be aggressive, go out there and play the natural game. Why do we need to hold on people? If they can play the natural game, get 400 or 500 runs in a day, why not?"

"I have always believed T20 cricket needs to be played this way, and we are going to play this way. It is high risk, high reward, high risk, high failure, and we will keep playing that way. We will have days when we get bundled out for 100, but we will take it up, continue to back our players to go out there and play high-risk cricket."

That's how we want to play, entertain the people of this country and even in Test cricket, we want to keep making the game go forward, and try to get the results in whatever situation we are in," Gambhir said during a pre-series press conference.

New Zealand are also not winning a Test match in India after 1988 for the first time, but Gambhir said that "the hosts are not going to take the Tom Latham-led side lightly" as they have good quality players with capabilities to make the visitors be in the drivers' seat at any point in the game.

"See, New Zealand is a completely different challenge. We know that they're a very, very professional unit, have got some really high-quality players who can hurt us, and can do the job for them as well.

So, we respect them, but we don't fear anybody. I have said it many times that we will always respect every opposition, be selfless, humble, try and play the game as hard as possible on the cricket field. Once the game is over, we want to try and stay as humble as possible.

"Rather we need to be switched on from ball one and that is the responsibility of the support staff to keep the players switched on come - whether we are batting or bowling first, try and be as professional as we can, try keep moving the game forward and get the results in our favour."

Gambhir also felt that the present era belongs more to bowlers than batters and added that the country's batter-obsessed attitude needs to end. "This is the era of the bowlers. Batters only set up the matches. It's very important for our batsman-obsessed attitude to end. If the batters make 1000 runs, there's still no guarantee that the team will win a Test match."

"But if a bowler takes 20 wickets, there's a 99% guarantee that we'll win the match. Be it Test matches or any other formats, bowlers win you matches and tournaments. So I hope this era or the upcoming ones, we'll talk more about bowlers than batters, and I hope the mindset changes over time."

He ended it by endorsing the premier batter Virat Kohli to come good after the right-handed batter made only one fifty in his last eight Test innings. "My thoughts about Virat has always been very clear - that he is a world-class cricketer. He has performed for such a long period of time and he is as hungry as when he made his debut."

"I remember opening the batting with him when he made his debut in Sri Lanka. Till now, his hunger is always and is already there. That is what makes him a world-class cricketer and I am sure that he will be hungry to get runs in this series and probably moving forward to Australia as well. We know that once he gets into those runs scoring, how consistent can he be."