NEWS
Follow UsThe six-match white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, starting on July 27 (Saturday), will be Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as India’s new head coach. The Men in Blue are scheduled to play three T20Is and as many ODIs in Sri Lanka.
India won the 2024 T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies under Rohit Sharma and former coach Rahul Dravid. They also finished as runners-up in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
In his inaugural press conference alongside chief selector Ajit Agarkar, Gambhir made it clear that his tenure will not be about what he does as India’s head coach but will be more about what his team does and achieves.
“I am taking over a very, very successful team. T20 World champions, runners-up in the WTC and ODI World Cup. The most important thing is that they will always have my back. Aim to make it a happy and secure dressing room. Big shoes to fill and really looking forward to it,” said Gambhir.
“It is important to give players the freedom. That is what I absolutely believe in. I don’t want to have a relationship between the head coach and players. The best relationship is the one which is built on trust and that is going to be very important.
“I have a fabulous relationship with Jay Shah (BCCI secretary) and all these speculations about different things, we can do a better job by clarifying a few things than putting these things in the media. The betterment of Gautam Gambhir is not important; Indian cricket is.”
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Gambhir played a major role in India winning the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 ODI World Cup at home. He was also the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders when they won the Indian Premier League in 2012 and 2014. KKR also won the last edition of the IPL and it was under Gambhir’s mentorship.
Talking about his mantra as India’s head coach, the 42-year-old said: “It’s all about winning, I don’t deviate from something like that. We are in a profession where there can be only one winner. We try and play fair, we try and play hard and try and come back in a winning dressing room and a happy dressing room.
"A happy dressing room is a winning dressing room. Ultimately it is the players' team, the support staff is there to try and get the maximum out of their potential. Sometimes international cricket can be tough, it can be insecure as well because only 15 can be picked. It is the job of support staff to keep them happy."
India will be without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the T20I series as the two have retired from the format, but they have made themselves available for the ODI series. There were reports suggesting that Kohli and Rohit could be rested for the ODI series but Gambhir wanted them to make themselves available, considering India are scheduled to play only six ODIs before next year’s Champions Trophy.
Jasprit Bumrah, however, has been rested for the entire tour and Gambhir said it’s important to manage his workload. Not just Bumrah’s but of all the fast bowlers.
"Workload management for someone like Jasprit Bumrah is important. For batters, if they can play consistently and if they are in good form, (they) might as well play all the games. With Rohit and Virat now not playing T20 cricket, they only have two formats to look after. So they are going to be available for most of the games," said Gambhir.
"For Bumrah, because he is one rare kind of a bowler who anyone would want [in their team], so it's our responsibility to try and have him fresh for most of the important games. So, workload management for, not just Bumrah, but fast bowlers becomes very, very important."
Meanwhile, Agarkar spoke about some of the players who missed out on selection. Despite scoring a hundred in his previous innings, Sanju Samson wasn’t included in India’s ODI squad. Ruturaj Gaikwad and Abhishek Sharma, who were brilliant in the T20I series against Zimbabwe, were also dropped from the T20I set-up.
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“Every player who's left out feels hard done by. Our challenge is to pick only 15. You try and get the best balance possible. So someone's likely to miss out. Sometimes, they have had decent performances in recent times but you've got to see who is picked ahead of them. Are those guys not deserving of their place? If that's the case, then there are things to discuss,” said Agarkar.
“We had an opportunity to give some of those guys a go in the Zimbabwe series, which was good. So, we have enough depth if tomorrow there is loss of form for the players that are playing or there are injuries.
"But it's tough. I mean Rinku Singh for no fault of his missed out on the World Cup, it's an example. He had a terrific (run in the) T20s leading up to the World Cup. But sometimes it's just the way it goes. Unfortunately for us as well, it is difficult to fit everyone in the 15."
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