Gambhir Rejects "India Era" Talk Despite T20WC Win, Points to ODI Struggles

Gambhir continued to seal a legacy as one of India's most successful coaches as after a Champions Trophy 2025 win, an Asia Cup win, he secured the T20 World Cup title win with India too, taking one of the most formidable T20I sides of all time to their record-breaking second T20 World Cup title and making them the first time to successfully defend the trophy and win the trophy at home.

However, Gambhir's ODI resume has been a little patchy, with a series loss against Sri Lanka back in 2024, a series loss to Australia last year and their first-ever ODI series loss to New Zealand this year, later two under Shubman Gill's captaincy posing questions about whether everything is alright heading into the 2027 ICC Cricket World Cup to be hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe. The future of senior batters, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, now ODI-exclusive legends, is also in the air and with every series, there is speculation if they will feature in the showpiece event or not.

On being asked during the post-match presser if the current era belongs to India in white-ball cricket, Gambhir said, "See I would not talk about white-ball cricket, because in white-ball cricket, we have lost two out of the last three series in one-day format. If that were an era, we would not have lost two series. ICC (tournaments), yes. ICC, obviously, that is a completely different ball game. The pressure is different."

Gambhir also said that he is not a believer in the idea of "eras".

"You have to turn up every day, whichever match you are playing - when you are playing for your country. You want to win each and every game. So there is no if and but about this - it is not that this is a bilateral, or an ICC trophy, or the World Cup. For me, I think, the people in the dressing room are very privileged to get the opportunity to represent their country. There are millions of kids who want to be in our position, even if it is my position. There are thousands of people who want to be in my position. There are millions of kids who want to come in the position of Surya and the players in the dressing room. So we can never take anything for granted. And when you wear this jersey, you can never afford to take anything for granted. So I can't differentiate between bilateral and ICC - Because it is the same. Everything exactly remains the same," he said.

Coming to the match, NZ won the toss and elected to field first. However, a return-to-form, record-breaking fifty from Abhishek Sharma (52 in 21 balls, with six fours and three sixes) and his 98-run stand with Samson made NZ regret the decision. Later, Samson stitched a century stand with Ishan Kishan (54 in 25 balls, with four boundaries and four sixes) to take India past the 200-run mark in the 16th over. After a brief slowdown, Shivam Dube (26* in eight balls, with three fours and two sixes) made some valuable runs to take India to 255/5, the highest total in T20WC finals.

James Neesham (3/46) was the leading wicket-taker for NZ.

In the run-chase of 256 runs, Axar Patel (3/23) and Jasprit Bumrah (4/15) reduced the Kiwis to 72/5, despite a half-century from Tim Seifert (52 in 26 balls, with two fours and five sixes). Despite a brief partnership between Daryl Mitchell (17) and skipper Mitchell Santner (43 in 35 balls, with three fours and two sixes), India kept chipping in with wickets, and the Kiwis were bundled out for just 159 runs.

- ANI