Former opener Gautam Gambhir feels Indian players lack “mental toughness” to handle pressure in crunch situations and can’t call themselves world champions unless they prove themselves in big-ticket tournaments just like the World Cup .
India won the ODI World Cup twice in 1983 and 2011 but are knocked call at the semifinal stage in four editions, including the last two editions in 2015 and 2019. In T20 World Cups, India had triumphed within the inaugural edition in 2007 and reached the finals in 201sho
“What sets you aside from being an honest player to being a really excellent player during a team squad is what you are doing on those crucial games. i feel probably we’ve not been ready to handle the pressure, probably other teams are ready to handle the pressure that way,” Gambhir said on Star Sports’ show ‘Cricket Connected’.
“If you check out all the semi-finals and finals, it just shows when playing rather well within the league stage and you do not play well within the semi-finals or knockouts, it’s probably your mental toughness also .”
Gambhir, who was a part of the 2011 World Cup which the country won after 28 years, said India cannot call themselves world champions unless they prove themselves.
“We can keep talking that we have got everything, we’ve the power to be the planet champions, but till the time you do not continue the cricket field and prove that, you’ll never be called the planet champions,” the 38-year-old said.
