Former India head coach, Ravi Shastri has extended his his unequivocal backing for Gautam Gambhir, India’s new head coach. Gambhir is taking over the side as the World Champions and will be in the hot seat replacing a very successful Rahul Dravid.
Gambhir will have huge boots to fill – of a World Cup-winning coach Rahul Dravid. Gambhir himself has enjoyed a fair bit of success as a coach recently with the Kolkata Knight Riders, where his side went on to win the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. His first assignment as India’s head coach is going to be the Sri Lanka series starting tomorrow (27th of July). His support staff includes his companions from KKR, Abhishek Nayar, and Ryan Ten Doeschate as assistant coaches, alongside interim bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule and fielding coach T Dilip.
The 42-year-old Shastri feels Gambhir will also bring a lot of ‘fresh ideas’ to the Indian team. “We know with Gautam, he’s a no-nonsense guy,” Shastri said of Gambhir. “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. I think even though you might think you’re mature, you might benefit from some fresh ideas. So I think it’ll be interesting times.”
Gambhir after a very successful career retired from all forms of cricket in 2018. He led KKR to 2 IPL titles in his captaincy. Post his retirement he was a part of the Lucknow Super Giants as their mentor for two years 2022 and 2023 where they reached the playoffs. Gambhir then returned to the franchise at which he won his two titles, in a similar capacity. KKR straightaway ended their 10-year hiatus to add a third IPL title, with a lot of their players crediting Gambhir for bringing back the glory days.
Shastri reiterated the fact that Gautam, as a contemporary in the sport, will be ‘refreshing’ for the national side. “He’s contemporary, he just had a great season in the IPL. I think he’s the right age where 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,” Shastri opined.
GG’s first assignment at the helm is in the format where India have a mini-transition to undergo. Following the World Cup win, India have lost the experienced troika of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja to retirements. However, Shastri reckons the job will be tough not because of the void left behind by them, but with regards to picking from the abundance of talent waiting to fill in.
“I think a lot of the players that won this T20 World Cup will still be around two years later (at the 2026 T20 World Cup). You mentioned the three players who retired (Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja), but barring them, I think most of the others will still be fit to be in that T20 World Cup team two years down the line in India.
“So I don’t think there’s much to be done there. In fact, you will get a problem on your hands because you’ll have to choose from the new lot that’s coming and there’s some real exciting talent there. There’s a queue out there and that will be his biggest challenge, but it’s a good headache when you have that kind of talent.”
Gambhir is going to have a busy 3-odd years with some major ICC events in line. Post the T20 title win, India will now focus on lifting a 50-over title next February at the ICC Champions Trophy. The World Test Championship Final also happens to be next year and India has a very good chance to make it to the finals for the third consecutive side. Post the longer-format events, there is yet another T20 World Cup scheduled in 2026, and that too at home. 2027 will then give India yet another chance to lift the ODI World Cup after a drought of 16 longs years.
