T-20 World Cup, Experience And Mindset Of Handling Pressure In Crunch Games: Gambhir On Dhoni As Mentor

Former Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir believes the appointment of MS Dhoni as the mentor for the Indian team in the men's T20 World Cup is attributed to his experience and mindset of handling pre

The 39-year-old MP from East Delhi felt that the ability to handle pressure from Dhoni is something which will be advantageous for the youngsters in the team to learn. "It's probably, how to handle pressure during those important games because India had missed out on those important games -- especially the Knockout games. So probably MS Dhoni's experience of captaining this side and handling that pressure in those important games could be a huge advantage for young players. And you have to remember that most of these guys are young, for example, your Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakravarthy or any of these batters play -- they've not been to any of the world cups."

Gambhir concluded by saying that Dhoni's mentorship will be more towards the experience side. "So, I'm sure MS will share his experience. That probably is the only thing I can think of; apart from that, I don't see that MS Dhoni change anything from a skill point of view. Ravi Shastri's been there, Vikram Rathour has been there, and the entire support staff is there. So, probably MS can only add his experience to the players while probably going into the crunch games."

India named a 15-member squad for the men's T20 World Cup on Wednesday to be led by Virat Kohli. There were surprise inclusions in Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel while Shikhar Dhawan and Yuzvendra Chahal missed out. India begin their journey in the men's T20 World Cup against Group 2 rivals Pakistan on October 24 in Dubai.