We love Gaurav Kapur’s youthful energy that lends an extra zing to his personality. The popular performer, producer and investor, founder of Oaktree Sports and a host and presenter on Sony Sports Network’s Extraaa Innings, Gaurav recently chatted with t2 on the India-England Test series, what he misses most about Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and his mantra in life as imbibed from sports.
What was responsible for India losing the first Test match, according to you?
Well, I don’t think India lost it as much as England won it. I think they won it with just some amazing batting in the fourth innings. Actually, it didn’t come as a surprise because they have been doing this for quite a while. Their new era of Test cricket in the last few years has been that “we will bat solid, back ourselves to chase 400, and we will come out aggressively”. That chase was remarkable. This is one of those absolute historic chases. England really played out of their skins to win this Test, rather than India losing it as such.
Lots of positive takeaways, though, for India...
Oh, plenty, plenty of positives. I think that Rishabh Pant continues to be a positive. He’s an enigma wrapped in a mystery. Only bowlers should try to decode him, and maybe they should also not, because they will just fail. Only Rishabh Pant knows what Rishabh Pant is doing. And he is so refreshing. I have a feeling that Rishabh will end up as one of the all-time Test greats. I think that in Test cricket, Rishabh is so out of the syllabus for the bowlers that they absolutely have no idea.
It’s so interesting because actually, batting is a reactive play. The bowler is proactive. The batter is reactive. But in Rishabh’s case, Rishabh is proactive. And it seems like all the other 11 players on the field are reactive. He decides that he’s going to hit that ball or he’s going to defend that ball. And then nothing can stop him....
I think the batters were all a great positive. The bowling would have been a little better if the fielding had helped. I think that the fielding or the catching was a big letdown.
Shubman Gill did pretty well...
The thing is that it’s such a big series to make your debut as a captain. It’s not like he was groomed for captaincy. It’s come all of a sudden. Like we saw in Virat’s (Kohli) case, he was groomed to become a captain. When Virat also left suddenly, you kind of knew that if Virat quits, then Rohit (Sharma) is the next successor. When Rohit left, there was no clear successor. There was a lot of discussion, and people are still torn. This one could have been, that one could have been. And yes, of course, there were four proper captaincy contenders. He is the youngest, and he’s been given that captaincy, and he doesn’t have that much captaincy experience as well. So he’s really been thrown in at the deep end. I won’t look at it in terms of results. I would actually look at it as how much he can make the team his, which means assert his leadership, his philosophy and his style and attitude on the team. And I think that will only increase as the games go on.
What are you looking forward to most as we go into the second Test that starts on July 2 in Birmingham?
I liked the fact that there was a nice seven-to-eight-day break in the middle. I would like to see, obviously, them really practice their catches. Don’t drop them! England is just too good a batting side. You give them chances, and they’re really going to make you pay. I would perhaps like to see two additions in the bowling. I want to see India get a little more attacking with the bowling, and know that we have to go and get 20 wickets. That’s the only way we will win. The batters are doing great. So, to get 20 wickets, I think in England conditions, keeping the conditions of the opposition in mind, I’d like to see two bowlers there. One is Arshdeep (Singh), because the kind of swing and seam he gets, very good for England conditions. And Kuldeep (Yadav), because he’s an attacking option who always manages to baffle England in England.
You have had a long association with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. You must be missing them?
Absolutely. I think everybody else is (missing). It’s a hard truth of life that time stops for no one. All the greats before them also had to go. At some point in time, you have to call time and you have to move on. But I think because it came so suddenly, none of us had any time to prepare for it. Rohit was the older brother who keeps everyone calm, who scolds you once in a while, and Virat is that younger brother who’s always ready to fight for you.
Just as personalities on the field, just as a viewer, forget the cricket, forget the competition, one, just in terms of entertainment, the two of them being on field are just amazing, just their conversations when the mic catches, it’s just so much fun. But even in terms of cricket, yes, their experience for sure is definitely being missed by the fans. But it’s not like it’s a young team. This is a very experienced team. So I think they’ll do fine.
What has your own journey with sports commentary taught you?
I think I’ve just learned to observe life a little more. The one thing that I realised very early on is that sport is the ultimate truth. It really is life. Meeting so many sportspeople, and I’ve also played a lot of sports in my life, whether it’s cricket or tennis, and now for the last two years, I’ve gone back to playing a lot of padle, so I pretty much play every day. There are a lot of learnings from it. The main learning that I get from it is that every day is a new day. You cannot live on the laurels of the previous day, or even the previous hour or the previous minute. You come, you start the day, you start it fresh. And you’ve got to do your process. You’ve got to give it your best. You’ve got to have integrity, you’ve got to have sincerity. And most importantly, the result is not entirely in your hands. I think this is a good lesson for life in general. That’s something that I also say to all my teams, like I’m a producer. So, on everything that I produce, this is the one thing that I say to all the teams when we start. I say that invest in the process, detach from the result, because the result is not in our hands, but the sincerity and integrity to the process is completely in our hands.
Is your chat show Breakfast with Champions coming back?
Well, now that you’ve said you want to watch it, I can’t say no! It is, yes. You’re the first person actually that I’m sharing this with in the public sphere. We have kind of locked the deal as of a couple of days ago, and we have another season that will come towards the end of August. And most importantly, this will be a multi-sport season.
Having met so many champions, have you kind of processed what is a champion mentality?
Absolutely. I’ll tell you how I approach the show. We (usually) look at them as these pinnacles of excellence. At the end of the day, they’re human beings. They feel emotions like all of us, but what makes them do something extraordinary? And those extraordinary traits that they have are traits that we should all have in life, in whatever sphere that we’re in. That is resilience, humility, integrity, commitment, consistency, just showing up day after day.
It’s one thing I learned very early when I was, you know, acting in films, a very popular quote by Woody Allen, which was that 80 per cent of success is just showing up.
I spent a day with Michael Phelps a few years ago. He told me that when he was training for the Olympics, he would train seven days a week. He would train every day, whether it was his birthday, whether it was Christmas or a wedding in the family. So he said that the minute I decide to train every day, I am training one day a week more than my nearest competitor. I’m training 52 days a year more than my competitor, which means you are already 15 per cent ahead in preparation than the next guy. And I said this is actually such a minute decision to make. I think the difference is that how do you change it from a lifestyle choice to a life choice. And that’s what they end up doing successfully.
Watch the India Tour of England 2025 2nd Test from July 2 2025 at 3.30pm IST live on Sony Sports Ten 1 SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 5 SD & HD, Sony Sports Ten 3 SD & HD (Hindi), Sony Sports Ten 4 SD & HD (Tamil & Telugu)
