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India can’t call themselves World Champions unless they prove it – Gambhir | Gautam Gambhir accuses India of lacking mental toughness

Two-time World Champion Gautam Gambhir claimed that Indian players lacked mental toughness to handle pressure in big matches. He also said that India can’t call themselves World Champions unless they prove it on the cricket field.

“If you look at all the semi-finals and finals, it just shows when playing really well in the league stage and you don’t play well in the semi-finals or knockouts, it’s probably your mental toughness as well,” the 38-year old said.

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Gambhir, who was a vital cog in the Indian sides which won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and 50 over World Cup in 2011, said that the teams can afford to make a mistake in bilateral series. But, if you make a mistake in knockout stages, you are knocked out of the tournament.

“It’s just your ability in those crunch situations. In bilaterals and league stages, you have got probably a chance to make the mistake. Come to knockout stages, you don’t have a chance to do that.

You make a mistake and you’re going back home. That’s where beliefs come into play and that where India lacks in all those crucial games.”

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He also said that the best players in the team prove themselves in crunch situations.

“What sets you apart from being a good player to being a very very good player in a team squad is what you do on those crucial games. I think probably we have not been able to handle the pressure; probably other teams have been able to handle the pressure that way,” Gambhir said on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.

“We can keep talking that we’ve got everything, we have the ability to be the world champions, but till the time you don’t go on the cricket field and prove that, you will never be called the world champions,” the 38-year-old said.

The Indian Cricket team last won an ICC tournament back in 2013 when they clinched the ICC Champions Trophy in England.

But, since then, they have made it at least to the Semi Final of every World event, but have faltered in the knockout stages. They lost in the Final of WT20 2014 and Champions Trophy 2017, while they were out in the Semi Final in World Cups 2015 and 2019, as well as the WT20 2016.

Written by Sarthak Karkhanis. Follow Sarthak on Twitter today.

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