Was Gambhir taking a dig at Dhoni and Sachin?

Adelaide: Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s calmness clinched the deal at the end of the day but it was Gautam Gambhir who laid the foundation for the Indian team’s win against Australia in the tri-series Down Under. But the real fun started in the post-match interview. Gambhir, who was also adjudged the man-of-the-match, felt that India should have finished off the match much earlier. “We should have finished the game in the 48th over. We shouldn’t have taken this game to 50th over. This is my personal observation,” said Gambhir, after his knock of 92 that set up India’s four-wicket win against Australia. [caption id=“attachment_211078” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“What’s Gambhir got in his mind? Reuters”] [/caption] “It’s easier said than done. There is far more pressure on the players who are in the middle. It’s their turn to take the decision. I don’t know why he (Dhoni) delayed it. Perhaps, he wanted somebody else to take the responsibility. Still the most important shot in the match was played by him,” Gambhir stated. “If I was there, I wouldn’t have looked to take it till the last over. I would have looked to finish one or two overs before. There is far more pressure even if you need 5-6 runs from the final over. But then we are different human beings, and we think differently.” His personal observation was completely at odds with his skipper, who categorically stated that he was trying to take the match into the last over. “I was waiting for their heart beat to come down,” Dhoni said after the game. “I told Suresh (Raina) that let’s take the game till the end. That was the time they were bowling well. So the idea was to take the game till the end and make use of the bad deliveries.” A strategy that clearly didn’t go down with Gambhir on a ‘personal’ level. Then, there was a question about the rotation policy and Gambhir’s body-language seemed to indicate that he backed the decision but the words that came out of his mouth were all wrong. “The amount of cricket we play, it’s important to rotate. When we don’t rotate, everyone has a problem. When we rotate, then it’s an issue too. Be it Rohit or Raina, they get an extra opportunity. To be honest, this was the best XI too. “More importantly, this is the XI that had the belief that they could beat any opposition in the park. One or two can’t make the difference. It’s the XI with belief. You don’t want names. You want people who can deliver.” The only big name who was sitting out was Tendulkar. Were Gambhir’s words an indirect barb at the master batsman or was he just trying to make a ‘personal’ point? “It’s important to get consistent runs. If I am desperate for a century, it would go away. Any amount runs that helps the team win is good rather than make a hundred on a losing cause,” he continued. We probably haven’t heard the last of this debate. Wonder what Sachin has to say about this? The Indian dressing room cannot be an easy place to be in at this point. With inputs from PTI