NEW DELHI: Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has often expressed his dislike for the term “dropping”, admitting that he feels emotional whenever a deserving player misses out on a place in the national team. team.

“Sometimes it’s difficult as a head coach and a team management where you will have to sometimes leave out players. I don’t like using this word, dropping players because you don’t drop players, you only select players,” Gambhi said while addressing the press conference after India registered a convincing seven-wicket win over West Indies in the second Test in New Delhi to complete 2-0 series sweep.

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“When a player is left out, the least a coach can do is be empathetic and not ruthless,” he added.

Over the past year, the Indian team has undergone a phase of transition across all formats under Gambhir’s guidance.

When asked about the qualities he looks for while introducing a new player to the national setup, Gambhir outlined his selection criteria.

“First and foremost, you look at talent. Then you look at the work ethic. You look at the characters in that dressing room, especially in red-ball cricket.

“You look at what they bring on the table, apart from the amount of runs and wickets they do, I think how hungry they are. And if you’ve got all those attributes, you will definitely have a successful Test career.”

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With so much competition for slots, Gambhir feels that international cricket is an “insecure environment”.

“For me, giving them a longer run is very, very important because as we all know that international cricket is a very insecure environment because only 15 players can go on to represent the country and there are so many people waiting for their opportunity.

“So make sure first you pick the right characters and then if you see that, try and give them a longer run so that they themselves should be content and happy that they’ve got a longer run rather than just chopping and changing as well.”

For Gambhir, the Test squad that went to England was superb in terms of its work ethic and ticked all the right boxes.

“So for me, I think that is something which is exceptionally important and these guys have done their bit, especially on the England tour, the kind of work ethic they had shown. For me, that was a huge tick.”

(With PTI Inputs)