Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has high hopes for Gautam Gambhir, the new Indian head coach. Gambhir took over from Rahul Dravid, whose tenure ended after India’s T20 World Cup 2024 win in June.
Gautam Gambhir takes over as head coach of the Indian squad on Saturday when the Suryakumar Yadav-led team faces Sri Lanka in the first T20I of a three-match series.
Since then, much has been said and written about Gambhir's appointment and what he offers to the team. Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has commented on Gambhir's hiring. Shastri gave over the captaincy to Dravid after the T20 World Cup in 2021.
Ravi Shastri believes that a youthful coach like Gambhir will bring a fresh perspective to this Indian team.
"He's contemporary, he just had a great season in the IPL. I think he's the right age when he's young, he'll come up with fresh ideas. He knows most of the players, especially in the white-ball format, having been part of teams in the IPL. So I think it's refreshing.
And we know that Gautam is a no-nonsense guy. He'll have his ideas as well. And the good thing for him is he's got a mature team. He's got a settled team, a mature team. I think even though you might think you're mature, you might benefit from some fresh ideas. So I think it'll be an interesting times. Obviously, player management becomes the key as a coach. So it'll be interesting to see how he goes. I think he's got the tools, he's got the goods for the job and he's got the experience,” Shastri said on ICC Review.
Gambhir takes over as India coach in all forms following an IPL success with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where he was the team mentor and was credited with rallying the players. He strengthened the confidence of players like Harshit Rana and Vaibhav Arora, and he persuaded Sunil Narine to open the innings again.
Shastri stated that Gambhir's "most important task" will be to understand his players as individuals and their "temperaments".
"It's a question of just understanding his players as quickly as possible. What their strengths are, what kind of human beings they are and what kind of temperaments do they have? What are their personalities? A lot goes behind the scenes to understand a human being.
I think that will be his most important task, which I think again should not be a problem because he's contemporary. He's seen these guys from the outside, he's dealt with a lot of guys who might have played with KKR as well and for Lucknow (Super Giants) when he was there,” Shastri said.
Gambhir's first duty as India coach will be a three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka later this month, but the 42-year-old faces real challenges in the form of next year's ICC Champions Trophy and qualification for the 2025 ICC World Test Championship final.
(ICC inputs)
