Former opening batter Gautam Gambhir is considered as the front-runner to replace Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach post the T20 World Cup 2024.
Last week, the 42-year-old was interviewed by the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) for the high-profile position. Ex-India cricketer WV Raman was also interviewed for the role.
However, multiple reports have suggested that Gambhir is the leading contender and his appointment remains a mere formality.
Meanwhile, a report published in Navbharat Times has claimed that during his interview with the CAC, Gambhir laid down not one but five conditions to accept BCCI's proposal.
According to the report, Gambhir demanded that he will have full control of the cricketing operations of the team, without any interference from the board. Furthermore, he will bring his own support staff, including batting, fielding and bowling coaches.
The most important condition put by Gambhir was that the 2025 Champions Trophy could be the last opportunity for four senior players -- Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Mohammad Shami.
If the aforementioned players fail to help India win the ICC event, they would be dropped from the team. However, there was no clarity of the players being completely discarded from all three formats.
As far as the fourth condition is concerned, there will be a separate team in red-ball cricket. Lastly, Gambhir will start preparing a roadmap for the 2027 ODI World Cup as soon as he joins the Indian team.
While it is certain that Virat, Rohit, Jadeja and Shami will be axed from the side if they don't perform in the 2025 Champions Trophy, the question remains if they will continue to feature in Test cricket.
Kohli and Rohit's future has already been uncertain and if the BCCI ropes in Gambhir for the job, it won't be a big surprise that the batting stalwarts could be left out of the national team completely.
It is pertinent to mention here that India could play the World Test Championship final next year. There could be a possibility of Kohli and Rohit getting dropped if India don't lift the WTC title next time around.
Notably, India have lost the last two WTC finals to New Zealand (2021) and Australia (2023), respectively.
