'Honesty is extremely important': Gambhir

Asserting that ldquodebatesrdquo in the dressing room should not come out in public domain India head coach Gautam Gambhir on Thursday said he has had some ldquohonestrdquo conversations with his players and that the ongoing transition in the team will be allencompassingGambhir also sidestepped queries on whether outofform skipper Rohit Sharma will get a place in the final XI for the fifth and final Test against Australia starting on FridayAmid reports of unrest in the dressing room the head coach sought to douse the fire by declaring that they were ldquojust reports not truthrdquoldquoThere were some honest words is all I can say Honesty is extremely important if you want to go on and achieve some great thingsrdquo Gambhir told mediapersons on the eve of the Test match that India need to win to retain the BorderGavaskar Trophy and stay alive in the World Test ChampionshipTransition phaseThe straighttalking former opener refrained from taking names but acknowledged that a transition is in progress and performance will be the sole criteria to stay in the sideldquoIndian cricket will always be in safe hands as long as there are honest people in that dressing room Honesty is the most important thing for any transitionldquoAnd itrsquos not phasing out senior players and bringing in new players Ultimately what will keep you in the dressing room is performancerdquo Gambhir couldnrsquot be more preciseIf one read between the lines it seemed that even Mohammed Shamirsquos days as an international cricketer are numbered Shami could not regain fitness for the current series despite being a rehab for a while ldquoEarlier when transitions happened it seemed one department is taking the team forward but in this case transition will happen in both batting as well as bowlingrdquo he saidTeamrsquos needs to come firstThe question of natural game versus situational awareness cropped up and the coach reiterated his stand that the teamrsquos needs come firstldquoOnly one ideology matters and thatrsquos Team First Itrsquos a team sport and you have to play the way the team needs you to play You can play the natural game but in team sport individuals only contributerdquoWhen Rishabh Pantrsquos shotselection in the Melbourne Test was specifically mentioned he brushed it aside saying ldquoI donrsquot want to talk about individuals they know where they standrdquoSo what are the conversations that he has had with Rohit and Virat Kohli whose dismissals outside the offstump continue to hurt the team ldquoTherersquos only one conversation and thatrsquos how to win matches for India We all know how important that isrdquo he saidUnwanted public discourseHowever Gambhir said that he doesnrsquot appreciate dressing room debates getting space in public discourse ldquoDebates between coaches and players should be confined between them This sport is known for results but conversations between individuals should stay inside the dressing roomrdquo he assertedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever