Gautam Gambhir vows for India to continue “high risk” approach against New Zealand

As India gear up for the New Zealand series which starts from tomorrow, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir shed light on what India’s approach is going to be. In the second Test against Bangladesh, India batted for less than a day and set up a victory for themselves. Gambhir pointed out that this approach is what is going to be the way forward for Team India.

Talking at the pre-match presser, Gambhir also acknowledged the fact that a move like this will always be challenging. It has its own shares of cons and if one is accepting the plus side of it, the alternative shouldn’t come as a surprise. However, he did emphasize on the fact that despite the high road stance, adaptability is going to be key.

Underlining the freewheeling attitude, Gambhir said, “Why do we need to hold on to people? If they can play the natural game, if they can get 400-500 runs in a day, why not? We will play it that way -- high risk, high reward, high risk, high failure.”

He further added, “There will be days when we'll get bundled out for 100 and we'll take it up then. But we'll continue to back our players to go out there and play high risk cricket. That's how we want to keep the game going forward and get the results in whatever situation we are in.”

Touching on the pointer of adaptability, Gauti said, “I had said in Chennai that we want to be a team that can make 400 runs in a day and bat for two days to draw. That's called growth. That's called adaptability and that's called Test cricket. If you play the same way, then it's not growth.”

He concluded by talking about the go-hard take against the travelling Kiwis, stating, “We have a lot of individuals in the dressing room who can bat for two days. So, ultimately, the first motive is to win the match. If we're in a situation where we have to play for a draw, then that's the second or the third option. We don't want to play any other type of cricket. We want people to go out there and play the natural game.”