This group has hunger, passion to do something special: Gambhir
New Delhi: Ahead of commencing the upcoming England tour, India head coach Gautam Gambhir and Test captain Shubman Gill had a brief but impactful address to the team, which will be without the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin, who have retired from the format.
In a video shared by the BCCI on Thursday, Gambhir and Gill addressed the squad in a pre-training huddle and laid out their vision for the five-Test England series, which will mark the beginning of the 2025–27 ICC World Test Championship (WTC) cycle for both teams.
Gambhir first welcomed newcomers Sai Sudharsan and Arshdeep Singh to the senior squad. 'First Test calls are always very special, so I want to welcome Sai (Sudharsan), who had a fabulous last three months with the bat... I want to welcome Arsh (Arshdeep Singh), you have been phenomenal in white ball cricket. I am sure with a red ball in hand, you are going to make it count,' Gambhir said.
The head coach further said that this squad has hunger and passion, which can make it a special tour, that signals the start of a new era for Indian cricket, following the Test retirements of stalwarts Rohit, Virat and Ashwin.
'All I want to say is that there's two ways of looking to this tour. One is, we are without our three most experienced players or we got this phenomenal opportunity to do something special for the country. When I look around in this group, I think the hunger, the passion, the commitment to do something special.
'I think if we make sacrifices if we come out of our comfort zone, if we start fighting, not every day but every session, every hour and every ball, I think we can have a memorable tour,' Gambhir said.
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