AB De Villiers Tells Gautam Gambhir To Warn Vaibhav Sooryavanshi And Co: "Bring Them Down To Earth"
South Africa great AB de Villiers stated that India head coach Gautam Gambhir should bring India's IPL stars down to earth after their 0-4 T20I series hammering against England.
- AB de Villiers advised India head coach Gautam Gambhir to bring Team India's IPL stars down to earth
- Players like Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Sanju Samson endured a tour to forget against Ireland and England
- "Bring those players who have scored so many runs in the IPL a little bit down to earth again": De Villiers
After conquering back-to-back T20 World Cups, India's T20I side received a shattering reality-check in the recent tour of Ireland and England, where they were clean swept 0-2 and 0-4 by the two nations respectively. Legendary South African cricketer AB de Villiers stated that the wake-up call may not be a bad thing for India. De Villiers urged India head coach Gautam Gambhir to bring the players "down to earth" again, after they had gotten used to scoring a truckload of runs in the IPL.
"Lots to worry about. Lots of eyes and fingers will be pointed at Gautam Gambhir," de Villiers stated, speaking on his YouTube channel.
"He needs to take leadership and ownership of how this team will move forward. He's got all the credentials to do so. Maybe this was not a bad thing to get a bit of a wake-up call. Bring those players who have scored so many runs in the IPL a little bit down to earth again," de Villiers added.
"Let them understand that this is international cricket; there's no more weakness. In the IPL, there are always one or two bowlers you think you can score against. (In international cricket) there's nowhere to hide, so you need to have more than one or two gears. You can't always bat in the fifth gear," he further said.
The likes of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma enjoyed successful seasons in IPL 2026 for their respective franchises. However, their tour of Ireland and England was largely a disaster.
Three of Samson's four knocks ended in single-digit scores, while Sooryavanshi failed to cross 15 in any of his three innings despite hammering 776 runs in the IPL just a few weeks earlier.
"It was tough to watch India going down 4-0. I did not see that coming. But also not completely unexpected because of the lack of experience, and that is the word that comes to mind. The leadership becomes all the more important. I know there are a lot of fingers pointed at Gautam Gambhir. It is not only him. He plays a huge role. But you will have to be patient with the makeup of that team," de Villiers further said.
Gautam Gambhir
Sanju Samson
AB de Villiers