The Virat Kohli-Gautam Gambhir rivalry has gotten a new chapter as the former India opener was unveiled as the new Team India head coach by the BCCI on July 9.

The Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), comprising Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjape, and Sulakshana Naik, unanimously recommended Gambhir's name. The former opener will take charge of the team from the Sri Lanka white-ball series.

Meanwhile, as everyone remembers, Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir might have been teammates at one time, but they had their share of confrontations on the field during the IPL. It happened in IPL 2013 and then repeated one decade later in 2023. Though the two parties sorted out the differences, it has been reported that Virat Kohli was not consulted during the process of naming Gambhir as the head coach.

Virat Kohli’s opinion was not sought by the BCCI before Gautam Gambhir was finalized as the next Team India head coach.

At 42, Gambhir is India's youngest head coach. He announced his retirement from all formats in 2018 and he had last played for India in 2016, under Kohli’s captaincy.

“There is enough time for the two to have conversations over the table. But it was important for the BCCI to look at the big picture with many youngsters likely to feature in the coming years,” a BCCI official told Hindustan Times.

It'll be intriguing to see how Gambhir gets along with Rohit Sharma, the captain of the Test and ODI teams. Rohit and Dravid got on so well together.

It is unlikely that either Rohit or Kohli would play in Gambhir's first series as India's head coach. The star players will return from the home Test series against Bangladesh, having asked the selectors for a lengthier rest.

While Virat Kohli was kept in the dark about Gautam Gambhir’s appointment as head coach, all-rounder Hardik Pandya was kept in the loop by the BCCI. His opinions were valued during the process as Pandya is slated to be the next T20I captain of India.

He did captain the Indian T20I side between late 2022 and the end of 2023 but was never announced as the official captain. Rohit took over right before this year's T20 World Cup. Hardik, however, was the team's vice-captain and did a stellar job in the team's winning run.