'No attention to social media noise, team building on trust, faith': Gambhir's T20 WC success mantra

Gambhir continued to build a hefty resume in white-ball cricket with the T20 World Cup title win by beating New Zealand by 96 runs at Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. Gambhir, with a Champions Trophy 2025, Asia Cup 2025 and T20 World Cup title, has built quite a solid resume as an Indian head coach, alongside an Indian Premier League (IPL) title with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) as a mentor. Having won the T20 World Cup, the 50-over World Cup, the Asia Cup and IPL during his playing days, the Delhi-born has carved out quite a heavy list of accomplishments for himself.

Following his side's win during the post-match presser, Gambhir said, "My accountability is not towards any social media. It is for the team. The process was not to be shared. We wanted to play fearless cricket. We wanted to play high risk high reward and this is how you play in this format. Captain and I were on the same page. Because if I can work honestly with them, if we can put in the hard work honestly - my accountability was never before, nor will it be today or in the future (to social media). Then even if I win two ICC trophies as a coach, it really does not matter because in the future, I think those 30 people (in the changing room) matter the most to me in my coaching tenure, no one else matters."

Speaking on his philosophy behind the team selection, which led to him backing Sanju Samson and bringing him back into the playing eleven despite a poor run of form earlier and persisting with world number one batter Abhishek Sharma, who lost his form during the tournament, Gambhir said, "You pick the team on trust and faith not on hope. So when you pick someone on trust and faith, you do not lose that trust and faith after four or five games. As simple as it can get. I have never, ever felt that we have ever picked a team on hope. The trust and the faith that all of us had in the squad that we had in the dressing room, irrespective whether we would have won this tournament, whether we would not have won this tournament, that is irrespective. The faith and trust would have exactly remained the same. So for me, I think that is something which is very important. And that will never go away, the trust and faith.

Coming to the match, NZ won the toss and elected to field first. However, a return-to-form, record-breaking fifty from Abhishek Sharma (52 in 21 balls, with six fours and three sixes) and his 98-run stand with Samson made NZ regret the decision. Later, Samson stitched a century stand with Ishan Kishan (54 in 25 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) to take India past the 200-run mark in the 16th over. After a brief slowdown, Shivam Dube (26* in eight balls, with three fours and two sixes) made some valuable runs to take India to 255/5, the highest total in T20WC finals.

James Neesham (3/46) was the leading wicket-taker for NZ.

In the run-chase of 256 runs, Axar Patel (3/23) and Jasprit Bumrah (4/15) reduced the Kiwis to 72/5, despite a half-century from Tim Seifert (52 in 26 balls, with two fours and five sixes). Despite a brief partnership between Daryl Mitchell (17) and skipper Mitchell Santner (43 in 35 balls, with three fours and two sixes), India kept chipping in with wickets, and the Kiwis were bundled out for just 159 runs. (ANI)