NEW DELHI: Having led Kolkata Knight Riders to the Indian Premier League triumph, Gautam Gambhir on Friday said that he is ready to captain the Indian Test side.
Asked if he was ready to lead the Test side, Gambhir said, “Absolutely, it is the biggest honour. I am ready for it. Ready for the responsibility of the challenge because you want to take different challenges as well. That’s where your mental toughness and character will be tested.”
“I have heard of the talks (of he being made India captain) but as I have said a captain is as good as the team. It’s a successful team that makes a successful captain and not that a successful captain makes a successful team,” he said.
Gambhir has played 48 Tests and 134 ODIs in his eight-year old international career but said he still feels insecure about being dropped from the national team.
“I am very insecure guy as far as my profession is concerned and my insecurity is far more than my security. Even now to be honest. That’s how I played my cricket starting from my Under-14 days, everyone told me if I don’t score runs I will be dropped. Since I started playing cricket as a kid I consider every game I played my last game.
“Even at this stage, if I don’t score runs in two or three game I start feeling that I am going to be dropped. That has gone so much inside my system that I have started living with it,” Gambhir told a news channel.
Surprisingly, he also said that he did not enjoy too much of cricket and the game was just his priority.
“I don’t enjoy, to be honest, too much of cricket. For me cricket is something which is my priority. I want to get there and get the best result. One thing which has helped me is that whatever I have gone through I try not to give to other people playing with me. Whenever I led a side I have always tried that my players feel secure.
“It’s not about I enjoy or not. Till the time the team is enjoying I am happy with that,” he said.
Gambhir admitted that, at times, he had crossed the line of playing with the spirit of the game and has learnt from the mistakes.
Gambhir also spoke highly about the IPL and dismissed the talks of banning the Twenty20 league. (PTI)