Gautam Gambhir is set to take over as India's head coach at the end of June this year, after the T20 World Cup 2024 finishes. India has currently qualified for the Super 8s of the tournament under the guidance of Rahul Dravid.
Rahul Dravid’s tenure as Indian team head coach will end after the T20 World Cup 2024. Dravid had taken over as head coach after the 2021 T20 World Cup from Ravi Shastri and has done exceedingly well in guiding India. India made it into the final of the World Test Championship in 2023 and the final of the 2023 World Cup. India also played in the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022.
Dravid declined BCCI's request for a second term as head coach citing spending time with family as the new coach will have a tenure of three years until the ICC World Cup 2027 in South Africa.
Gambhir has never coached a team full-time, although he has acted as an IPL mentor for the previous three years. He played with the Lucknow Super Giants from 2022 to 2023, aiding them to two consecutive playoff appearances.
Gambhir's stock has grown as a result of him guiding KKR to its 10th IPL title in the IPL 2024, and he is now expected to take the top spot. Gambhir will be the sixth World Cup winner to coach the Indian men's cricket team.
Many former greats, including Ricky Ponting, Stephen Fleming, Mahela Jayawardene, and Justin Langer, were thought to be in the race to succeed Rahul Dravid as Team India's head coach, but the BCCI wanted an Indian candidate.
According to a report in Dainik Jagran on Sunday (June 16), Gambhir's hiring is nearly complete, and he will be named India's next head coach by the end of June, after the T20 World Cup 2024.
Gambhir also notified the board that he would like to choose his support staff members. Vikram Rathour is currently the batting coach, Paras Mhambrey the bowling coach, and T Dilip the fielding coach.
Notably, when Shastri was elected head coach, Rathour replaced Sanjay Bangar as batting coach. When Dravid succeeded Shastri, Rathour remained in his position, although Mhambrey and Dilip were chosen solely at his insistence for their respective duties.
Following Gambhir's appointment as coach, the Indian team's support staff would undergo considerable changes, including the likely replacements of Rathour, Mhambrey, and Dilip.
(Dainik Jagran report)
