The trophy gleamed beside Suryakumar Yadav on the table. The gaze of coach Gautam Gambhir, seated to his right, often veered towards the trophy. He shed his usual stiff demeanour, smiled and laughed and only put on a stern face when it was mentioned that Surya is the more natural smiler.
“Yes, yes, he is the smiler,” Gambhir said, before putting on a stern face.
It was a night the masks fell off the captain and coach, when their emotions were pure, when they were unstained by the need to put on a different face in front of the media. Surya, repeatedly filing disclaimers that the moment is sinking in, did not try many wisecracks but spoke as he naturally would, at times with a sense of informality. “When we wake up tomorrow and go back home, I don’t know where we are going, but it will be a special feeling,” he said, still in dazed wakefulness.
Gambhir was more switched on and articulate. His pet word was courage. He sprayed it five times and in various contests. As in “it takes so much courage,” when talking about Sanju Samson’s comeback knocks. “It shows our quality, bravery, and courage,” dwelling on the 250-plus totals they peeled off in the knockouts. He spoke of batsmen’s courage to eschew personal glory for the team’s benefit. “If someone is batting on 94, does he have the courage to go and get the 100 next ball, rather than thinking about getting 100 in three or four balls?” He downplayed personal milestones, as he has done throughout his career. “Stop celebrating milestones, celebrate trophies,” Gambhir said, firming up his tone as though it was his most important message of the night.
The smiles say it all 😌
Vibe of champions 😎#TeamIndia | #T20WorldCup | #MenInBlue | #Final pic.twitter.com/F65Rn4Fi1E
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 8, 2026
He would not leave the topic, and each sentence met with an appreciative nod from Suryakumar, his eyes wandering to the room’s ceiling. “For too long in Indian cricket, we’ve spoken about milestones, and I hope, till I’m there, we’re not going to talk about milestones,” he said.
He explained why: “You can see it very easily as well. You can see it in the last three games, what Sanju did – 97 not out, 89 and 89. Imagine if he would have been playing for a milestone, probably we wouldn’t have got 250.” He had snide/advice/request for the media too — it was difficult to say which because his tone was uniformly monotone.
“So, I think this is for you guys [media] as well. That is going to be important, because the bigger purpose of a team sport is to be winning trophies.”
Nod to the past
Gambhir’s favourite sentence was, “You don’t fear to lose a game of cricket to win a game of cricket.” His most assertive sentence was, “I don’t believe in inheriting anything, I believe in creating something,” when asked about the team he inherited from predecessor Rahul Dravid. It was a paradox because at the start of the interaction, he had dedicated the trophy to Dravid. “I think I should dedicate this trophy to Rahul bhai and then to VVS (Laxman). Because what Rahul bhai has done to keep Indian cricket in such a good shape, I have to thank him for everything that he’s done during his tenure. And then VVS for unconditionally doing so much for Indian cricket, especially behind the doors, because COE (Centre of Excellence) remains the pipeline for Indian cricket,” the coach said.
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Faith was another word that he repeated. “I think you pick the team on trust and faith. You don’t pick on hope. So, when you pick someone on trust and faith, you don’t lose that trust and faith after four or five games,” he said.
It’s the leitmotif of the team too, players are given a longer rope despite the temptation to blood in new players.
Usually a man defiant about his vulnerabilities, Gambhir thanked Ajit Agarkar and Jay Shah for their support during tough times. Jay Shah “because not many people have actually called me when I’ve gone through the lowest moments in my tenure.”
Those were the Test series defeats to New Zealand and South Africa at home.
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Over to the captain
For much of the press conference, Surya was at the non-striker’s end. But he burst out laughing when asked about playing for five more years.
“Let’s do it,” he said, grinning from ear to ear. He, already 35, hinted that he could actually dig deep. “No, obviously very excited the way things have gone since 2024. So, we want to continue doing that ’27, ’28, ’29 and never stop,” he said.
Of course, the Olympics gold and the 2028 T20 World Cup crown too. The defence of a defence. The empire of Surya.
Often, the captain turned philosophical, the thicks eyebrows getting thicker. “I think it is important to understand that you will definitely fail more times than you succeed in sports.” Or “ups and downs will definitely keep on coming in sport. But you have to understand, you have to respect the game, you have to try and spend time with all the good people around you.”
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Or, like a line from a management book: “Be true to yourself. You can’t cheat the man in the mirror when you get up in the morning or (when) you’re going to sleep.”
He elaborated on his bond with the coach. “We already had that camaraderie. I have played with him and I know what he thinks. He will take two steps, I will take two steps and we will meet somewhere in the middle. So many times, it has happened that we didn’t even need to discuss much. So, this is a special thing, which is very important,” he said, smiling, and spreading that infectious smile to the usually intense Gambhir, on an emotional night when the masks came off the captain and coach.
