Gautam Gambhir does not pay any attention to the claims made by those making stories about pitches. Despite India’s significant achievement in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2026, some cricket fans and experts on social media platforms claimed that the pitches were ‘crafted’ only to favor the Indian national cricket team.
Team India’s head coach rejected the ‘tailored pitch’ theory saying that the Indian cricket team is so good that it cannot even think of such a thing. He gave credit to the cricketers for scoring runs on different grounds even in foreign conditions.
Gautam Gambhir outright rejects ‘simulated pitch’ theory
Former cricketer of Pakistan during the tournament Saqlain Mushtaq said that the pitches used for India’s matches were designed to give the batsmen of the Indian cricket team some extra advantage over the bowlers of the opposing team.
Gambhir claimed that some people come up with fabricated stories to attract views and TRPs, which need not be taken seriously as the team has already proved its credibility on various grounds across the world.
Gautam Gambhir said in an interview with ANI, “I don’t agree with it. Why would you prepare something? And to be honest, India is such a good team that it can’t even think about something like this. In the T20 format, whether you look at Australia or South Africa, we scored 200 runs. If we score 200 runs in India, the wickets are ready. So I think some people want to create controversy. Statements made for views and TRPs are acceptable. Shouldn’t happen.”
Gautam Gambhir said about India vs Pakistan match in Sri Lanka
For example, Gautam Gambhir mentioned the India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup 2026 match, which was held in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The pitches in the island nation are renowned for their spin-friendly nature. Even during the 2026 T20 World Cup, teams had to struggle a lot to score runs on those tracks. India scored a respectable total of 175 runs and defeated Pakistan by 61 runs.
“We also played a match against Pakistan in Colombo, where we scored around 180 runs and other teams were scoring 140 runs. We beat Pakistan by a huge margin and no one questioned the pitch there,” the veteran coach said.
He reminded that it was the International Cricket Council (ICC) that monitored the pitches during multinational tournaments, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has nothing to do with the character of the pitch.
“Because sometimes it is also important to give too much credit to the players. It is not that we have scored such big scores only in Indian conditions. In ICC tournaments, they control the wickets. It is not the BCCI that controls them,” said the former international opener.
Team India’s coach told the nature of T20 cricket
He also claimed that fans watch T20 matches to see high-scoring contests. The format is tilted towards the batsmen, and fans want to see the batting side post huge scores; This is the nature of Twenty20 cricket.
“Nobody wants to come and watch a 120-run T20 match. Everyone wants to watch a high-scoring match. It is a worldwide phenomenon – in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England too,” he said.
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