Gautam Gambhir stood up and clapped after Shivam Dube took the game out of New Zealand’s reach, scoring 26 not out off eight balls. It was a match-winning cameo after the Kiwis briefly came back into the contest with three wickets in the 16th over.
Jimmy Neesham was doing the damage and, after his first three overs, his figures read 3/22. Until that point, it was a gold-standard spell that had restored some sanity to the proceedings. Before that, the Indian top order was driving a Ferrari on a Motera motorway. Dube laid into Neesham in his final over and collected 24 runs to take India’s total to 255/5. The game was in the bag but Gambhir was still not smiling.
Someone should have asked him to let his guard down a bit. He has now guided India to two ICC titles within a span of 12 months – the Champions Trophy in the 50-over format and the T20 World Cup. The Champions Trophy was largely a carry-over from the structure built by the Rahul Dravid–Rohit Sharma combination.
But this T20I side is his baby. He has nurtured it over the last two years. Not winning the World Cup would have hurt. In fact, there was little chance of a slip-up in the final once England were taken care of at the Wankhede. New Zealand were never going to challenge India in front of more than 100,000 fans at the Narendra Modi Stadium. They do not have the big-tournament-winning pedigree to break a billion hearts, to paraphrase Mitchell Santner.
Throughout the tournament, the New Zealand captain was tactically not quite up to the mark. But that is a different story. This column is about India’s head coach, who sharply divides opinion. “I don’t care about it,” Gambhir had said with regard to facing criticism after winning the Champions Trophy. “I don’t even care about it, honestly. My job is to be honest to 140 crore Indians and to my players in the dressing room. I don’t care what people say about it, how they talk about it, whether they’ve got agendas or not. I don’t even care about it.”
When goaded, Gambhir has had a tendency to react sharply, but this is one of his strengths as well. It helps him create a siege mentality in the dressing room. It was needed after the defeat to South Africa in the Super Eight game. It was also required to insulate Abhishek Sharma from the outside noise.
The opener went into this World Cup as the best T20I batsman in the world and his team’s X-factor. Suddenly he lost his mojo. Ahead of the final, some experts called for Rinku Singh’s inclusion in the playing XI at the expense of Abhishek. On the eve of the match, Gambhir did not allow the left-hand batter to have a lengthy batting stint in the nets. Instead, he chose to have a long conversation with the youngster. It was important to put him in the right headspace as the title showdown loomed. Abhishek decimated the New Zealand bowling in the final on his way to an 18-ball half-century.
Sanju Samson was dropped after a string of low scores. But he was never truly left out. So when the wicketkeeper-batsman was brought back into the fold, he was ready to deliver. Over the last three games, Samson elevated himself to one of the team’s MVPs.
Be it a World Cup final or a bilateral fixture, this Indian team does not change its gung-ho approach. An excellent dressing-room atmosphere that allows players to perform without looking over their shoulders is the reason. Test cricket is a different ball game, but in the shorter formats Gambhir has been fantastic. He has earned the right to wear a wry smile.
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