"Why Hesitate To Praise?" Ex-India Star Gives Bold Verdict On Gautam Gambhir

Former India opener Aakash Chopra praised head coach Gautam Gambhir after Suryakumar Yadav and Co. clinched the ongoing five-match T20I series against New Zealand. India delivered a dominant performance against the Kiwis, convincingly winning the first three matches to take an unassailable 3-0 lead, before losing the fourth game by 50 runs. This marks India's ninth consecutive T20I series win since Gambhir took charge as head coach. Despite their inconsistency in ODIs and Tests, India have maintained their supremacy in T20Is.

Chopra said Gambhir deserves full credit for India's success in the shortest format, especially because he was heavily criticised during the team's struggles in other formats.

"Gautam Gambhir deserves credit. When we don't hesitate to criticise, then why hesitate to praise? I'm talking about India's T20 batting approach. That approach is not the future - it's the present. We understood it late. The formula was the same: 11 players, 20 overs, and this is what you can achieve if you play fearlessly. India weren't able to do it before," Chopra said in a video uploaded on X (formerly Twitter).

Credit where credit is due. #Aakashvani #IndianCricketTeam #GautamGambhir #INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/fs93OwmmAJ

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 26, 2026

"Even now, ODI and T20I series take place together. New Zealand's bowling unit hasn't changed, but India's approach has. The moment we started dominating and decimating, we broke the opposition's resolve. Now they are saying even 300 might not be enough because this team is different," he added.

Chopra further pointed out that India's T20I and ODI squads earlier "overlapped," which diluted the aggressive intent required in T20 cricket.

"Gautam Gambhir did the work. Previously, the talk was about playing aggressively under Rohit Sharma. Rohit did play that way and walked the talk. Secondly, the T20I side used to overlap with the ODI team. A lot of overlap used to happen and the approach was different," said Chopra.

"Not everyone played aggressively. But the present side is a team of assassins and destroyers - whether it's Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube or Rinku Singh," he added.

Topics mentioned in this article

India Cricket Team New Zealand Cricket Team Aakash Chopra Suryakumar Yadav Gautam Gambhir India vs New Zealand 2026 Cricket