India coach Gautam Gambhir inspects the field before the T20 World Cup 2026 match. (Annie’s photo)
New Delhi: India head coach Gautam Gambhir has strongly denied allegations that the stadiums in India are “tailored” to favor the home team, saying the team is too strong to even contemplate such tactics.Speaking after India’s successful campaign in the 2026 Men’s T20 World Cup, Gambhir said criticisms about pitch conditions often arise only to generate controversy and attract attention.Go beyond boundaries with our YouTube channel. Subscribe now!“I don’t agree with that. Why would you personalize something? Frankly, India are too good a team to even think about something like that,” Gambhir said in an interview with ANI.He noted that India’s ability to score big totals is not limited to its domestic conditions, highlighting similar high-scoring performances in countries such as Australia and South Africa.
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“In the T20 format, whether you look at Australia or South Africa, we have done 200 runs. If we do 200 runs in India, the wickets will be allotted. So I think some people want to create a controversy. The statements given about views and TRPs should not be accepted,” he said.The former opener also stressed that field preparation during international tournaments is overseen by the International Cricket Council and not the Board of Control for Cricket in India.
Read also: Team India report card: A perfect end to an imperfect T20 World Cup campaign“Because sometimes it’s important to give the players a lot of credit as well. It’s not like we’ve had such big scores in Indian conditions only. In ICC tournaments, they control the wickets. It’s not the BCCI that controls them,” Gambhir said.Citing an example from the group stage match against Pakistan in Colombo, Gambhir pointed out that India posted a huge total on a twisty pitch while other teams struggled to come up with competitive scores.“We played a match in Colombo against Pakistan where we scored around 180 and the rest of the teams were giving 140. We defeated Pakistan by a huge margin and no one questioned the field there,” he said.Gambhir added that modern T20 cricket naturally produces big scores because the format is heavily tilted in favor of the batsmen.“No one wants to come and watch a 120-run T20 match. Everyone wants to watch high-scoring matches. This is a global phenomenon – in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and England as well,” he explained.
