Gautam Gambhir's stern message to Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, others going on break: 'Make sure that...'

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Gautam Gambhir first lauded the T20I team for their superb performance to whitewash Sri Lanka 3-0, before sending out a stern message to those going out on a one-month break ahead of the home series against Bangladesh in September.

The likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson, Ravi Bishnoi and Rinku Singh are not part of the ODI series against Sri Lanka which starts from August 2.

While Gambhir said that the players deserve a break, but should be very mindful to keep up with their fitness and form during the period. He said players should not just walk into the team without maintaining their fitness during the break.

"Some of the guys will not be a part of the 50-overs format will have a longer break, so make sure when you come back for the Bangladesh series...you can take a break. You absolutely deserve it, but more importantly, keep your skills and especially the fitness levels high," Gambhir said in a video posted by the BCCI on Wednesday, July 31.

"You don't want to come for that series thinking that 'okay, I can just turn up, probably deliver for the team'. So make sure that from the fitness point of view, the fitness levels are right up there," he added.

Notably, reports had emerged that Hardik Pandya had asked for leave and asked the selectors to not pick him for the ODIs due to personal reasons. Later, chief selector Ajit Agarkar went on record to say that Suryakumar Yadav was give the T20I captaincy because of the uncertainty over Hardik's fitness and availability.

Gautam Gambhir praises Surya's captaincy

Further, the newly-appointed coach praised Suryakumar Yadav for his captaincy and his men for showing a tremendous fighting spirit even when the chips were down. Notably, Sri Lanka needed 30 off 30 with nine wickets remaining, when they lost seven wickets and fell one-run short of the winning margin to push the match to a Super Over and ultimately losing there.

"Guys, congratulations on a great series win. Congratulations to Surya as well, outstanding captaincy and with the bat as well. I asked for something before the start of the game and you absolutely delivered it.

"This is what happens when you keep fighting, (and when) you don't give up. These kind of games happen and the only way these key games can happen (in favour) is when we keep fighting on every delivery and for every run and this was the example."

"We keep getting better, we keep improving our skills as well because we still need to get better on playing on wickets like these, because we might end up getting these kind of wickets (in future).

"So we should first assess the situation and conditions really quickly and what is the par score as well," he said.