Hamilton, November 1, 2026 (Yes Punjab News)
India head coach Gautam Gambhir has praised captain Shreyas Iyer for guiding the team to a 3-2 T20I series victory against New Zealand despite having an inexperienced bowling attack and limited preparation time for the tour.
India secured an unassailable 3-0 lead after winning the first three matches but lost the final two games, including Sunday’s fifth T20I by seven wickets. Gambhir nevertheless described the overall campaign as an impressive effort, particularly given the absence of several established bowlers.
India were without Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Harshit Rana and Washington Sundar for the series, leaving the captain with a relatively inexperienced bowling unit.
“Shreyas has done a fabulous job with so much inexperience in the bowling line-up. As a captain, you’re only as good as how your bowlers or your batters perform. Especially with an inexperienced attack, I think he’s done a phenomenal job,” Gambhir said at the post-match press conference.
He noted that Iyer had taken charge of a successful team that had won the T20 World Cup and remained unbeaten in T20I series for two years. However, the team had subsequently faced challenging assignments, with several young players being given opportunities.
Gambhir said exposing emerging players to difficult overseas conditions was important in building a squad for the next T20 World Cup.
He also praised the team’s effort given the short turnaround between the five-match T20I series against the West Indies, which ended on October 17, and the New Zealand tour. The players arrived on October 20, trained the following day and began the series on October 22.
The coach said the team had to adapt quickly to different weather conditions, pitches and ground dimensions, with several players touring New Zealand for the first time.
Gambhir also defended India’s aggressive batting philosophy, saying the team’s high-risk, high-reward approach would remain unchanged despite occasional defeats.
“Sometimes we will lose matches, sometimes we will lose one-sided matches. We will lose in the future as well, but our ideology, our philosophy will not change,” he said.
He added that India wanted to maintain the same attacking approach irrespective of whether they played in England, Australia or at home, arguing that the philosophy had contributed to the team’s success over the past two years.
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