Gautam Gambhir's high risk, high reward approach as India head coach paid off as the Men in Blue clinched their third T20 World Cup title on Sunday (March 8) by beating New Zealand in the final at Ahmedabad.

With this triumph, Gambhir became the first Indian head coach to win two ICC titles, having secured the Champions Trophy last year. He also guided the team to Asia Cup triumph in 2025.

However, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly believes Gambhir’s "real test" is still more than a year away, in the form of ODI World Cup 2027, which will be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

"His real test in white ball is going to be in South Africa in 2027. Conditions there will test him but I am confident he will get it right with the team he has," Ganguly said in an interview with Boria Majumdar for Money Control.

Ganguly also called for improvement in Test cricket under Gambhir. India’s Test graph has gone down considerably with Gambhir at the helm, winning 7, losing 10 and drawing two of their 19 Tests so far, which includes a couple of clean sweeps against New Zealand (0-3) and South Africa (0-2) at home.

The team also conceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 1-3 in Australia. The only Test series wins in his tenure have come against Bangladesh and the West Indies in home conditions.

"In red ball, he needs to get better. And the way to do it is to think less about the wicket. He needs to get the wicket out of his system. Take the England series. He couldn't do anything about the wicket and you can see the results. He doesn't need to play on turners at home. Good wickets will produce good results," Ganguly stated.

He backing the Indian head coach to turn things around. "Gautam is a very good coach. If you remember I said on your platform ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy that you need to give the man some time. As white ball coach he is very good especially in these conditions. He has a very good team and is a very good coach," Ganguly remarked.