Mohammad Kaif, a former Indian cricketer, has claimed that the current Indian T20I team doesn’t need any big names as captain or head coach to win nine out of ten matches on their own.

This came after Team India registered their third T20 World Cup win recently. India dominated the semis and the finals, scoring more than 250 runs in three out of their last four games in the tournament, including 255/5 in the final.

India has not lost a bilateral series or a multi-nation event since winning the 2024 T20 World Cup, indicating their dominance during this phase. India last suffered a bilateral T20I series defeat in August 2023, when they went down 2-3 to the West Indies.

Suryakumar Yadav joined MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as Indian captains to win the T20 World Cup, while Gautam Gambhir joined Lalchand Rajput and Rahul Dravid as T20 World Cup-winning coaches. In fact, Gambhir is the first person to win the T20 World Cup as both a player and a coach.

However, Mohammad Kaif has credited India’s vast talent pool for the success, claiming that the Indian team doesn’t need any big names as players or the coach to win matches on their own.

“The Indian team no longer needs a famous name as captain or coach. The players themselves are strong enough. I understand that Gautam Gambhir had a significant role in India’s T20 World Cup win—he helped build this team and backed players like Sanju Samson. Suryakumar Yadav also didn’t lose a single bilateral series until the T20 World Cup. However, I feel the structure of this team is such that it will only improve from here. You won’t see a downfall,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.

According to Kaif, India’s depth of talent is the biggest advantage.

“The main reason is our pool of players. We have multiple options for every spot. Nobody is even talking about players like Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shreyas Iyer. Sai Sudharsan has also scored runs in the IPL and even won the Orange Cap. A lot of credit for this goes to the BCCI and the IPL, where players get used to performing in high-pressure situations. Because of that, our players are already far ahead in the race," he added.

Kaif stated that he was not disparaging Suryakumar Yadav and Gambhir's contributions to India's title victory. However, he emphasized the smooth transition in the T20I setup despite the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja.

“I am not trying to downplay the contributions of Gambhir or Surya. But the reality is that you could appoint anyone as captain—Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah, or Hardik Pandya—and this Indian team would still win nine out of ten matches,” Kaif concluded.

India’s next international assignment will be in June, when they host Afghanistan for one Test and three ODIs.