With the T20 World Cup on the dressing room table in Ahmedabad, coach Gautam Gambhir addressed his team for one last time. “This is the most important thing in our dressing room, nothing else matters. You can win 100 bilateral matches and no one will remember. But they will always remember this trophy,” Gambhir said.
In his first interview since lifting the trophy, captain Suryakumar Yadav shared the details of Gambhir’s riveting speech with The Indian Express — and other behind-the-scenes events that went into India’s historic triumph. But did Gambhir smile? “In the first four games we didn’t give him a chance to laugh. After the final, he smiled the most,” Surya said.
So did the rest of the squad that bonded over one radical idea during the eight-month preparatory phase — no heroes, no personal milestones, only victory. “It was very important to spread this thing like a virus in the team from the start,” the captain said. “We planted this team culture 18 months back.”