Gautam Gambhir took charge as the head coach of the Indian cricket team after Rahul Dravid, who ended his stint with the T20 World Cup 2024 trophy. The start of Gambhir’s tenure was pretty good, as India registered a consecutive T20I series win against Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. But the first ODI series didn’t go well.
India lost the ODI series against Sri Lanka 0-2. Now the real test arises for Gautam Gambhir and India. The Men in Blue are set to play 10 test matches in the coming six months, which includes home series against Bangladesh and New Zealand and a much-awaited five-match Border-Gavaskar trophy in Australia.
These matches are part of the World Test Championship 2023-25, and India need to perform well to make it the final to be held at Lord’s next year. India will host Bangladesh for two Tests, starting on September 19. Ahead of the series, the Indian head coach had a fun chit-chat, where he encountered some interesting questions.
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Gautam Gambhir names Virat Kohli as “Shahenshah of Cricket”
In a fun interaction on the sidelines of the inaugural season of the Delhi Premier League (DPL 2024) last week, he was asked to name cricketers on the given phrase. All the given terms were related to the movie from legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan.
Indian cricket have had many great superstars in the past that have dominated the world. But when asked to name the Shahenshah of cricket, Gautam Gambhir picked Virat Kohli. Gambhir didn’t pick MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, or any other Indian stars. Notably, the word “Shahenshah” means “emperor” in English.
He also picked some other superstars for different names. For Badshah, Gambhir picked former Indian star and member of 2007 and 2011 World Cup-winning teams Yuvraj Singh, while the head coach himself picked for the “Angry Young Man” term. Here are some of the interesting picks he made.
- Dabang: Sachin Tendulkar
- Shahenshah: Virat Kohli
- Khiladi: Jasprit Bumrah
- Mr. Perfectionist: Rahul Dravid
- Tiger: Sourav Ganguly
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Team India to get back in action after a 43-day break
Since the Sri Lankan series, India have had a rare 43-day break from cricket. They will return to action on September 19 in the first test against Bangladesh at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The second test will take place in Kanpur on September 27. The test series will be followed by three T20Is.
After that, India have back-to-back series against New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia. It will be a jam-packed schedule. Gautam Gambhir has two big events coming up in the next 10 months: the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the World Test Championship Final. After winning the T20 World Cup 2024, India will be keen to add these ICC titles to their bag as well.