More than six years after playing his last competitive game, Gautam Gambhir has taken over as India’s head coach at the age of 42. He is the second youngest Indian to hold this position after Kapil Dev in the late 1990s. Extremely competitive on the field and fiery and outspoken off the field, Gambhir has taken charge of the team that qualified for the finals of the last World Test Championship and ODI World Cup in 2023 and won the T20 World Cup in 2024.
What are the big challenge coming for Gambhir?
His first series is a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka at the end of the month, after that two Test series at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand, which are part of the ongoing World Test Championship. India currently top the WTC points table and are in a good position to make the finals.
Gambhir’s first big opportunity is India’s five-Test tour of Australia at the end of the year. India had won its last two Test series in Australia in 2018-19 and 2020-21 and this encounter could be crucial for finalizing the WTC points table.
What’s in Gambhir’s coaching resume?
Well, he has never coached any domestic or international team in List A or first-class cricket before, but this is not unusual for the Indian team. For example, both Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble had no prior coaching experience before taking over in 2014 and 2016.
Gambhir has got this post after a successful stint as a mentor of two IPL franchises. Under his guidance, Lucknow Super Giants qualified for the playoffs in his first two IPL seasons, and he then led Kolkata Knight Riders to the title in 2024. So in that sense, Gambhir’s path to the India job is a far cry from Rahul Dravid, who spent several years as head of the National Cricket Academy and coaching India’s age-group and A teams.
Will Gambhir have to take any difficult decision in the near future?
In T20 format, the changes have already started after the retirement of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja. The ODI and Test set-ups are stable for the future matches and the question of changes may arise only after the Champions Trophy and World Test Championship in 2025.
Gambhir, in his role as a media professional, has been criticising for giving rest to senior players between high-profile assignments, but his tenure is likely to last until the 2027 ODI World Cup, so he will have to give his 100% for India’s best players to keep them fit for assignments.
Statistics or intuition, where will Rohit and Gambhir meet?
After winning the T20 World Cup, Rohit thanked Dravid in a touching note as he left all his achievements at the door and made the players feel comfortable to say anything in front of him.
Rohit and Dravid were often consistent in their strategies and used data and analytics in their planning, such as when they selected four spinners in the T20 World Cup squad due to the conditions in the West Indies.
Gambhir is driven less by serious statistics and more by intuition. He has said this many times, which means he needs to understand a larger aspect of Rohit’s captaincy.
Rohit (37) and Gambhir (42) are also contemporaries, having made their international debuts at a gap of four years. They were regular Indian teammates between 2009 and 2013 and they were rivals in the IPL until 2018.
Will Gambhir and Kohli be in the same dressing room?
In 2009, Gambhir gave his player-of-the-match award to young Kohli, who scored his maiden ODI century. A year later, the duo made a crucial third-wicket partnership in the 2011 ODI World Cup final to save the match from collapse.
And then in 2016, Gambhir returned to the Test team under the captaincy of Kohli.
Despite their encounters on the field in the IPL as the captain in 2013 and as mentor and player in 2023 they have defined people’s perception of the equation between them. However, in IPL 2024, the two were seen being more friendly with each other in public. When asked about his relationship with Kohli, Gambhir said that “the perception was far from reality.” And when Kohli was asked about it during the season, he said: “I hugged Naveen ul-Haq, with whom he had a tussle in IPL 2023 and then the other day, Gauti bhai came and hugged me. “Applied…we are not children anymore.”
Gambhir comes across as a fiery person in public, will he be as aggressive as a coach?
It is true that Gambhir has been involved in heated exchanges many times on social media and in person on many issues ranging from cricket to politics. However, he is considered to be someone who goes out of his way to support his teammates. For example, his dispute with Kohli in IPL 2023 is believed to be the result of him not liking the verbal altercation that took place between Kohli and LSG fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq. And in 2017, he had a falling out with the Delhi State coach over his handling of the youth in the team. Gambhir has been vocal against giving excessive limelight to any individual in a team game, a philosophy he adopted during his mentoring stints at LSG and KKR.Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir shaking hands after the game, Lucknow Super Giants vs Royal Challengers Bangalore, IPL 2023, Lucknow, May 1, 2023. And Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir were seen resolving differences in IPL 2024
So what impact has Gambhir had as a mentor during KKR’s IPL 2024 title win?
In IPL 2021, 22 and 23, Sunil Narine scored only 154 runs and stopped opening for KKR. When Gambhir returned to the team as a mentor in 2024, he convinced Narine to move up the order again and play without any pressure. Narine scored 488 runs at a strike rate of 180.74 and took 17 wickets, his best bowling performance in an IPL season since 2018.
Off the field, Gambhir is believed to have mediated between head coach Chandrakant Pandit, whose old-fashioned methods led to great success in domestic cricket, and a number of foreign players who found Pandit’s method unusual.
Dale Steyn warns the world cricket about new Indian coach Gautam .
Former South Africa pacer Dale Steyn lauded Gautam Gambhir’s appointment as India’s head coach and said his aggression and game awareness on the field will be beneficial for the Men in Blue. BCCI announced Gambhir as head coach of the Indian team after the departure of Rahul Dravid. India clinched the T20 World Cup title to end the 11-year-long ICC trophy drought in his last assignment. “I’m a big fan of Gautam Gambhir. I love his aggression. He’s one of the few Indians I ever played against who came back at you, and I like that. I think he’s going to take that into the dressing room with guys like Virat and some of the other senior players who might not play as big a part anymore. I’m not too sure,” Steyn told Star Sports.
“Not just in India, but in world cricket, we need guys who are a little bit more aggressive and play the game a little bit harder. We all seem to play in the leagues against each other, and we become quite friendly and friends. I like the way that he’s fierce on the field but a gentleman off the field. He’s also streetwise, a very smart cricketer, and has a great cricket brain. So I think from that point of view, he’s going to be fantastic for them too,” he added.
Former Proteas all-rounder Jacques Kallis also remains confident in Gambhir’s ability to excel in the job with his aggressive nature.
“It’s great to see Gautam getting into the coaching side of things. He’s got a really good cricket brain. He’ll bring some fire and loves playing the game aggressively. I think he’ll bring that added touch, and the guys will certainly learn a lot from him. He’s got a lot to add and will bring significant value to that Indian side. I wish him all the best—not too much against us, but I’m sure he’ll do a fantastic job,” Kallis said.
Former Pakistan all-rounder Shahid Afridi added, “I think it’s a big opportunity, and we need to see how he makes the most of it. I have seen his interviews, and he talks positively and is very straightforward.”
Gambhir will join the Indian side for the Sri Lanka tour, where India will play three T20Is and as many ODIs against Sri Lanka, starting on July 27.
Conclusion.
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