Former India opener Gautam Gambhir stayed mum when questioned about his potential appointment as the next head coach of the national side, stating, "I don't see that far ahead."

Earlier this week, the 42-year-old was interviewed by the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) for the high-profile post.

Several media reports have suggested that Gambhir is the leading contender to replace Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach post the T20 World Cup 2024.

However, Gambhir, who recently mentored KKR to their IPL title win, refused to comment on his prospects.

"I don't see that far ahead. You are grilling me, asking me all tough questions," Gambhir said while speaking at an event organized by the Indian Chambers of Commerce in Kolkata on Friday (June 21).

“It is difficult to answer right now. All I can say is that I'm happy being here, just finished a brilliant journey (and) let's enjoy that. I'm in a very happy space right now," he added.

Gambhir emphasized that prioritizing the team over individual players forms the foundation of his approach to coaching.

"If you have the intent of keeping your team ahead of any individual, things will fall in place. If not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow, someday it will fall in place. But if you start thinking on that, or if you know that you need to help one or two individuals perform, then your team will only suffer," Gambhir stated.

"My job is not to make individuals perform. My job, as a mentor, is to make KKR win," said Gambhir who was praised all over for his role in KKR's winning run this year.

"For me, the guru mantra is team first philosophy. I think team-first ideology, team-first philosophy is the most important ideology in any team sport," he further remarked.

Gambhir attributed KKR’s success in the IPL 2024 season to the team's cohesive and leadership-driven environment.

"Yes I was the leader but all of us in the dressing room made the change. it was about making Kolkata proud. It was morale responsibility for me to give something back to Kolkata," he said.

Sharing his coaching philosophy, Gambhir said it revolves around giving equal treatment to all players within the team.

"In a team sport, it's the team that matters the most. Individuals do play a role, individuals do contribute," he said.

"But I think if 11 people are treated equally, if 11 people have equal respect, if everyone is treated equally, given the same respect, same responsibility, same honour, you will achieve an unbelievable amount of success.

"You cannot have discrimination in a set up or in an organisation," he added.

Gambhir expressed no regrets about his relatively short tenure as the captain of the Indian cricket team.

"I have always thought about performing for the fans, and that has been my thought since the last year of my training career. In the middle, I got this honour of captaining India for six games. I tried doing it to the best of my ability," he said.

"Otherwise, I have no regrets whatsoever because my job was not to captain the series. My job was to make my country win, and whichever team I play for, make that team win," he added.

However, he does have one regret as a batter and that is not being able to finish the 2011 World Cup final match.

"I wish I had finished that game. It was my job to finish the game, rather than leaving someone to finish the game. If I had to turn back the clock, I would go back there and score the last run, irrespective of how many runs I scored," stated the left-hander, who slammed 97 in that title clash against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede Stadium.

(With PTI Inputs)