India face an uphill task to qualify for the 2025-27 WTC final.
Former wicketkeeper-batter Deep Dasgupta has advised the Indian team management to look past short-term goals like WTC final qualification, urging a long-term rebuild for future cycles and longer preparatory camps to help players and coaches align.
Dasgupta’s comment came amid the ongoing India versus Sri Lanka Test series. The Shubman Gill-led side won the opening Test by 165 runs in Galle to gain a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.
Despite the dominating performance, India face an uphill task to qualify for the WTC final. They must win at least six of their remaining eight Tests to realistically secure a spot in the summit clash.
"I think this is something that the team should do more often: have a proper camp or a period to prepare before a Test match," Dasgupta said while speaking to Sports Now.
"I would want to use this cycle to create a team which would dominate in the next two cycles, rather than looking at it in the short term, series to series," he added.
Dasgupta argued that the retirement of big names like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin from the Test setup has left major voids that need to be filled before the next cycle.
"In the last two or three years, Virat has retired, Rohit has retired, Ashwin has retired, Ajinkya and Pujara are gone. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav are also gone. So the main nucleus of the team that you spoke about for the last 10 years is gone," he stated.
Deep Dasgupta believes Gautam Gambhir's biggest challenge as head coach would be helping the next generation of players transition from white-ball cricket to red-ball matches.
"The next generation of players, like I said, are more white-ball-cricket oriented than red-ball. So you've got to give them a little bit of time to settle down into Test match cricket as compared to white-ball ODIs or T20s Keeping that in mind, yes, we need to work harder, but I like the direction," Dasgupta remarked.
After the Sri Lanka tour, India will travel to New Zealand for two Tests before playing Australia in a five-match series at home to wrap up their 2025-27 WTC cycle.