'Eras don't matter': Gambhir plays down talk of white-ball dominance

India's white-ball domination has been compared to that of Australia between 1999 and 2007 when they they won three successive ODI World Cups.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir played down the talk of India being in an era of dominating in white-ball cricket following the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 triumph.

With three ICC trophies in three successive years (2024 T20 World Cup, 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and 2026 T20 World Cup), it was inevitable that someone would ask whether India's white-ball domination was comparable to that of Australia between 1999 and 2007 (they won three successive ODI World Cups).

However Gambhir played it safe.

"See, I won't talk about white-ball cricket, because in white-ball cricket, we've lost two out of the last three series in one-day format. If it was an era, we wouldn't have lost two series," Gambhir said with a wry smile in the post-match press conference.

Gambhir came up with a rather loaded response.

He did not take names but it wasn't particularly hard to guess who all played in the series defeats to Australia (away) and New Zealand (home) last year.

While he agreed that the Indian team's record in recent ICC tournaments has been good, but to him "eras" don't matter.

"I don't believe in these eras. You have to turn up every day, whichever match you're playing. When you're playing for your country, you want to win each and every game.

"So, there's no if and but about this – it's not that this is a bilateral, or an ICC trophy, or the World Cup. So, I can't differentiate between bilateral and ICC - because it's the same. Everything exactly remains the same," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)