‘Mentally one of the most insecure people’: Why Gautam Gambhir was among the ‘weakest’ cricketers for this World Cup-winning coach

When asked how one quantifies accountability among the team members whom he did not want to single out, Gambhir said: “It comes from care. How much you care about the dressing room and the team? Accountability and the game situation can never be taught. You can talk about skills, you can work on skills, you can keep talking about the mental aspect of the game, but ultimately when you go in, if you keep putting the team ahead of your own self, not thinking, ‘this is how I play, and this is how I will get the results, I don’t have plan B,’ so sometimes you will get these kind of collapses as well.”

While Gambhir can come across as a proud and patriotic man, it has occasionally hindered his progress during his playing days, at least. Or at least that is what former India mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton believed.

Gambhir’s insecurities: A ‘well-documented’ chapter

It is unclear whether the same strand of striving for perfection continues to drive Gambhir, the coach. But Gambhir, the India opener, the hero of two World Cup finals, was certainly obsessed with his performances, even more so if they were great knocks.

In his 2019 book, ‘The Barefoot Coach’, Upton discussed the myth of mental toughness of elite sportspersons and elaborated on why he found Gambhir among the weakest cricketers in the Indian set-up during his coaching tenure between 2008 and 2011, where India clinched the ICC Test mace and also clinched the 2011 ODI World Cup. Even as Gambhir would have his best years in that period, even being crowned the ICC International Cricketer of the Year in 2009, Upton found the left-hander’s processes to be somewhat muddled.

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“I did some of my best and least effective mental conditioning work with Gautam Gambhir, the International Test Cricketer of the Year in 2009. I worked with him up until that time but I had little to do with him being named world’s best cricketer,” Upton writes in his book.

Upton would describe that he found Gambhir in “agony” after being unable to his 150s to double centuries. The South African would also rate Gambhir low on a 0-100 optimism spectrum.

“Let’s say his range was 20 to 40 with 30 being normal. When he scored 150, he would be disappointed not scoring 200.”

“Using popular notion of mental toughness, he was one of the weakest and mentally the most insecure people I have worked with.

“But at the same time, he was undoubtedly one of the best and most determined and successful Test batsmen in the world. Something he would prove yet again in 2011 World Cup final,” Upton added.

How Gambhir responded to Upton’s observations?

Responding to Upton’s observations in his book, Gambhir said his insecurities were well documented and that he strived for the best for Indian cricket.

“There is no sinful intention in Upton’s views as he is a nice man, and in any case, my insecurities are well documented.

“I wanted myself and the Indian team to be the best in the world. That’s why I was not satisfied even after scoring 100 as it has been mentioned in Paddy’s book. I see nothing wrong there. As a driven individual, I have tried to raise the bar for myself all alone,” Gambhir would say.

South Africa legend AB de Villiers, who has shared the IPL dressing room with Gambhir, recently said an “emotional” individual like the former Delhi batter isn’t an ideal choice for coaching international sides.

“I don’t know what GG is like when it comes to leadership. I’ve known him as an emotional player and if that is the case in the change room, generally an emotional coach is not a good thing to have. But it’s not to say he’s that kind of a coach and the kind of leader behind the scenes. There’s no right and wrong. Some players will feel comfortable with a former player. Some players will be comfortable with a coach that’s never played the game before but he’s got a lot of years of experience of coaching the game,” de Villiers said on R Ashwin’s YouTube channel.