The National Times - Gambhir lauds India's 'courage' after T20 World Cup triumph

Suryakumar Yadav's India hammered New Zealand by 96 runs in a one-sided final in Ahmedabad after they posted a massive 255-5 batting first.

Opener Sanju Samson's 89 laid the platform for India to score more than 250 for a second straight match, after their seven-run semi-final win over England, and for the third time in the tournament.

"If you score 250-plus runs in the semi-final and final then it shows the kind of quality and the kind of bravery and courage we played the tournament," Gambhir told reporters.

"We did not want to fear losing, high-risk, high-reward is an important thing in this format," he said.

"I would have been happy to get bowled out for 110-120 but our target is 250. Captain also wanted to play this brand of cricket, so credit needs to go to the captain as well."

Gambhir, who replaced Rahul Dravid as coach after the T20 World Cup triumph in 2024, was underfire coming into the tournament after home defeats in other formats.

India were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in a Test series last year and New Zealand won an ODI series 2-1.

"My accountability is not towards any social media talk, my accountability is towards the 30 in my team," said Gambhir on facing criticism.

"Whether I have won two ICC (International Cricket Council) trophies or not those 30 people matter to me the most."

India won the ODI Champions Trophy and the T20 Asia Cup last year under two-time World Cup winner Gambhir.

Gambhir, 44, credited captain Suryakumar, who sat alongside the coach in the press conference, for the T20 success.

"Surya has made my life a lot easier in this format, I think he is a phenomenal leader," said Gambhir.

"My simple philosophy with Surya is that milestones don't matter, trophies do. Too long in Indian cricket we have spoken about milestones and I hope till the time I am there we don't talk about milestones."

Samson, a wicketkeeper-batsman, stood out as the team's star after he made a stunning comeback in the team midway to score three successive half-centuries.

The in-form Samson, who hit 97 not out and 89 in his previous two innings, blasted five fours and eight sixes in the final to be named player of the tournament.

"Sanju to get three in a row and to do that after coming back it takes show much of character and courage where you know maybe your career is on line," said Gambhir.

"Making a comeback like that and playing those kind of innings with such flamboyance, you need to be a special talent and he deserves a lot more than he has got till now."

P.Jones--TNT