Gambhir: Important to build relationships with seniors to take Indian cricket forward

Chennai, Sep 18 (PTI) Head coach Gautam Gambhir on Wednesday underlined the significance for him to build on the existing cordial relationship with the senior players like skipper Rohit Sharma and batting talisman Virat Kohli to take Indian cricket forward.

Gambhir, who took over from Rahul Dravid after the T20 World Cup, has shared the Indian dressing room with the likes of Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin in the not-so-distant past.

“It’s still early days (for him as coach). But the good part is that I have played with those guys (seniors). At one stage we were sharing the dressing room as players, when they were younger, who have now become experienced guys,” Gambhir said in the pre-match press meet here.

“When you have that kind of a relationship, sometimes it gets much easier than building a relationship. Obviously, now the roles are different.

“The relationship we can build over a period of next couple of years. It's going to be very important, and now we should keep taking it a little bit forward because we've got massive challenges coming our way,” he added.

The spat between Gambhir and Kohli after an IPL match at Lucknow has often been portrayed in social media as an example of strained relation between them.

But Gambhir did not buy those assumptions.

“Sometimes people have made a lot of hue and cry about these things. But that's not true. My relationship with everyone in the dressing room team has been really, really good.

"More importantly I think the heart needs to be in the right place. When the passion is there, I think a lot of things can ease. I think the desire to win each and every time when we walk onto the cricket field, it's there. So, I think we've started off really well,” said Gambhir.

To buttress his argument, the 42-year-old explained his rationale behind selecting the eleven for a particular match.

Communication, for him, is the watch word here.

“I think the most important thing is clear communication. See, we don't drop anyone. We only select the best playing 11. We think and do the job for that particular Test match.” The former India opener then offered an example that also dispelled any lingering doubts over the first-choice wicketkeeper for the opening Test against Bangladesh, starting here from Thursday.

“I feel Jurel is a quality player. He's done phenomenally well in the last series (against England). He played some really crucial knocks under pressure. But sometimes people will have to wait.

“Someone like Sarfaraz has also done really well. But sometimes you just need to wait for the opportunity and keep working hard. India has got a really long Test season ahead.

“So, we just have to make sure that these guys are ready whenever they get their opportunity. And that is what is called bench strength,” he added. PTI