Former England cricketer while also criticising Pakistan for being stuck in an obsession with personal milestones over team gains. Butcher said other teams could learn from India’s move away from relying on “individual superstars” for success.
“There’s quite a stark contrast there in the way that their neighbours from the north (west) in Pakistan are still stuck in the idea of personal milestones and individual superstars. Gautam Gambhir, who’s had his detractors over his time in charge, has basically walked away from that mantra and has built a team,” Butcher told Wisden.
Indian coach Gautam Gambhir had also emphasised his views on getting the results and not running behind milestones.
After India defeated New Zealand by 96 runs in the T20 World Cup 2026 final in on Sunday for their third T20 title, Gambhir said, “For too long in Indian cricket, we’ve spoken about milestones, and I hope, till I’m there, we’re not going to talk about milestones. You can see it very easily as well. You can see it in the last three games, what Sanju [Samson] did – 97 not out, 89 and 89. Imagine if you would have been playing for a milestone, probably we wouldn’t have got 250. So I think this is for you guys [media] as well. Stop celebrating milestones, celebrate trophies. That is going to be important, because the bigger purpose of a team sport is to be winning trophies. Scoring personal runs has never mattered to me, and it will never matter to me.”
Pakistan’s opener Sahibzada Farhan ended up as the highest run-getter of this edition, but his team failed to even reach the semifinals, getting knocked out in the Super 8 stage.
Pakistan white-ball coach Mike Hesson had also pointed out the same obsession with milestones. After taking over as the head coach of Pakistan’s white-ball team in May 2025, Hesson had dropped star players Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi in his first T20I series as coach, against Bangladesh.
Hesson had then stated that he wanted players who play according to the needs of the team, rather than chasing personal milestones.
“It becomes pretty apparent to everybody [if someone’s playing for personal milestones] that that’s what’s happening, and it’s been happening for years. I think personal milestones will just happen if you’re trying to do the right thing by the team, and then the team will celebrate them. If we need 14 an over, a single down the ground is not going to make a big difference. If you’re looking to hit it somewhere for four and you can’t – no problem. But if we can tell you’re not picking the bat up and you’re just trying to bunt it for one to get your milestone, those milestones don’t really matter if you end up losing by 20. It’s all about context and doing whatever you can to help the team win the game,” Hesson had said to PCB last year.
Months later, Babar made a comeback in the Pakistan team for the T20 World Cup but endured a horrid run with the bat, with the veteran struggling to even score at a run a ball.
