VIDEO SHOWS: POST TEST-SERIES PRESS CONFERENCE WITH INDIA COACH GAUTAM GAMBHIR. SHOWS: NEW DELHI, INDIA (OCTOBER 14, 2025) (BCCI – Must credit BCCI. No use social media. No monetisation) 1. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIA COACH, GAUTAM GAMBHIR, SAYING: "100%. And I've always believed this, that world cricket needs West Indian cricket, that is something that is very important and it was very nice to see them fight. Obviously they're an inexperienced team, and there are a lot of changes that have happened there but the way they fought in the second innings will obviously give them a lot of confidence." 2. WHITE FLASH 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIA COACH, GAUTAM GAMBHIR, SAYING: "For me, I think I'm not looking at what's going to happen in the World Test Championship final (in 2027), I think staying in present is very important, and it was important for us to win the series at home, and more importantly I think, we've got a really busy schedule, hopefully we can keep continuing from here. I'm not going to say what I think is going to happen in 2027, that is still long, long way away. So for us, I think staying in the present is important." 4. WHITE FLASH 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIA COACH, GAUTAM GAMBHIR, SAYING: "It is tough on players, especially those who play all three formats, but I think the best thing that happened in this series was the way the test guys prepared before the series. Going to play the India A game against Australia it was very, very important and playing XX trophy before the south Africa series is going to be equally important as well. I thought that is something which this group of players have done exceptionally well, they're preparing themselves really well for the test series and that's where you could see the results as well. So for me I think yeah sometimes it's difficult but that is what professionalism is all about." 6. WHITE FLASH 7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIA COACH, GAUTAM GAMBHIR, SAYING: "I thought that we could have had a better wicket here. I think for me I'm not thinking about, yes we did get the result on Day 5, but again I think wickets need to carry. I think there has to be something for the fast bowlers as well. I know we keep talking about spinners playing an important role, but when you've got probably two quality fast bowlers in your ranks, you still want them to be in the game as well. It is okay if there's not enough but there has to be carry, so as we all saw, I thought the carry wasn't there which was a bit alarming and I think going forward we can get better wickets in test cricket, because all of us have the responsibility of keeping test cricket alive and I think the first and foremost thing to keep test cricket alive is playing on good surfaces." STORY: India opened their home season with a flourish, sweeping West Indies 2-0 on Tuesday (October, 14) and tightening the chase for second place in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings after a first series win for test captain Shubman Gill. Gill impressed in his first series in charge in England where he steered an evolving side to a 2-2 draw despite the test retirements of experienced batters Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. The 754 runs he amassed on that tour suggested the captaincy would not affect the batting of the 26-year-old, who made his fifth test hundred of the year at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. India won the opener in Ahmedabad inside three days and made West Indies follow on in Delhi before coasting to a seven-wicket victory at head coach Gautam Gambhir's home ground on the day he turned 44. Gill now has four wins from seven tests as captain. His men have reduced the gap with Sri Lanka, who are second behind Australia in the WTC standings, ahead of India's two-test home series against reigning world champions South Africa. India will particularly be pleased with Kuldeep Yadav, whose eight wickets in Delhi earned the wily left-arm wrist-spinner the player-of-the-match award. B Sai Sudharsan's scores of 87 and 39 in Delhi also boosted his bid to hold down the crucial number three spot. India made the first two WTC finals but lost on both occasions. "I'm not looking at what's going to happen in the World Test Championship final (in 2027)," coach Gautam Gambhir said. "I think staying in the present is very important, and it was important for us to win the series at home. "More importantly, we've got a very busy schedule. Hopefully, we can continue from here…2027 that is still a long, long away for us." West Indies, crushed 3-0 by Australia in their previous series at home, suffered a second successive clean sweep. Skipper Roston Chase took some satisfaction from their second-innings batting when hundreds by John Campbell and Shai Hope powered them to 390 in a late display of defiance spread across nearly 119 overs. "I think this is the kind of fight that I wanted to see from us, from matches before," Chase said. "This is a stepping stone, a building step for us to go forward and improve as a test playing nation." (Production: Lucy Thomson)
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