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Cricket Players'You don't play on reputations': Gambhir warns India in his brutal assessment of SA tour; 'Look beyond fear of losing'
When asked about the factors behind India's poor run in South Africa, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that India to move beyond the reputations and the ‘fear of losing’.
Team India will be aiming to end the series against South Africa on a positive note as they take on the Proteas in the third and final ODI of the series in Cape Town. Having already conceded defeats in the first two ODIs, India had a tour to forget in South Africa – having already lost the Test series 1-2.
India, under the captaincy of KL Rahul, had an indifferent outing across both ODIs of the series so far. The side looked rusty and the bowling attack, in particular, disappointed across both games. While the side faced a 31-run defeat in the first game, the side failed to defend a 288-run target in the second.
When asked about the factors behind India's poor run in South Africa, former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir said that India to move beyond the reputations and the ‘fear of losing’.
“Fear of losing. You don't play on reputations,” said Gambhir in the pre-match show on Star Sports.
“Cricket isn't played on reputations. It is played in the middle. Many people say that India's top-4 or top-5 is very explosive and very experienced. But the way you play in the middle is the only way to determine results.
“We need to look beyond the fear of losing and the fear of own performance, that ‘I shouldn’t get out, I should score runs'.”
Gambhir also said that the Indian team will be confined to stats and numbers and it won't help them in ICC tournaments if they don't “value” small contributions.
We need to value small contributions as well, not only from team management but from all perspectives (experts and media). Unless you give value to them, you will only remain stats-driven and numbers-driven. And that doesn't win you series and ICC tournaments. Only a combination of everything will win you big tournaments," said Gambhir.