Stand-in-Skipper Gautam Gambhir praises young Indian team after 5-0 whitewash against Kiwis
Stand-in-Skipper Gautam Gambhir praises young Indian team after 5-0 whitewash against Kiwis
With a 5-0 series win under his belt, skipper Gautam Gambhir was understandably overjoyed and showered praise on his India teammates, saying that the success showcased the team's bench strength.
Yuvraj Singh (right) and Parthiv Patel celebrate the win over New Zealand
during the final One Day International against New Zealand at MA
Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai yesterday. pic/AFP
Speaking after the eight-wicket win against New Zealand yesterday, Gambhir was quick to point out that the series win augured well for the 2011 World Cup to be held in the sub-continent.
"We are a young side and everyone wants to go out there and prove himself and that's what everyone did. I think a lot of credit goes to entire young bunch of boys because it's very easy to slip into complacency after taking a 3-0 lead, but this is what professionalism is all about and this is what showing character is all about," he said.
Gambhir, leading virtually a half-strength India with quite a few established players given a break ahead of next week's series against South Africa, said that the competition for various positions in the team had been healthy and it had brought out the best in the players.
"It's always a good sign when your bench strength performs well. It's a good thing for the selectors that there is a healthy competition in the dressing room and this what brings out the best out of player.
"You can never afford to be complacent at any stage because you know there is another one waiting in the wings," he said.
However, he observed that the World Cup would be a totally different scenario and that one needed to factor in the pressure while the fielding standards definitely needed to improve.
Pressure
"I think World Cup will be a different ball game. There will be far more pressure and there will be a lot of expectations. If you want to be number one, you need to improve all the time." "I think one area we can really look into is maybe try and improve our fielding. If we compare ourselves to New Zealanders, they were far more brilliant on the field than us," Gambhir noted.
"If we can improve our fielding as a team, I think with the kind of talent we have in our batting and bowling, we can be big contenders in the World Cup and a very strong side in the future," Gambhir said.
He was especially happy with the way off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had developed as a frontline bowler, who showed a big heart in bowling during power plays. "Ashwin was most impressive. He is a quality bowler. If you have an off-spinner who can play in the Power Plays and slog overs, it can be a great asset for the team. He was pretty handy and in the entire five-match series he bowled brilliantly," Gambhir said.
"I think Yuvraj was also brilliant. He delivered with whatever opportunities he got with the ball and the bat and the amount of support I got from him was tremendous. He is always a match winner."
"I think Yusuf played a fantastic innings. I have always felt that Yusuf is someone who has the talent to turn the game on its head. If you see the last game, he turned it completely. Given the situation, not many would have given us a chance to win that match," he pointed out.
Figure Trigger
1u00a0Gautam Gambhir yesterday became the first and the only skipper to complete a five-match series whitewash in his debut rubber as captain. The complete sequence of India's victories against New Zealand is: by 40 runs at Guwahati, by eight wickets at Jaipur, by nine wickets at Vadodara, by five wickets at Bangalore and by eight wickets at Chennai.
103u00a0Number of runs scored by New Zealand in 27 overs, which is the lowest completed score ever by any team at the Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. They set aside the previous lowest score of 139 made by Zimbabwe against Australia during 1987-88 World Cup.
21 Number of times Yuvraj Singh bagged the coveted Man of the Match award. His 42 not out, two wickets and two catches helped him to win the
latest award against New Zealand at Chennai.
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