Gautam Gambhir, head coach of Team India, pointed toward the open dressing room and culture of allowing players to be themselves as an important thing to work towards.
His comment came after the third ODI against England in which India had already secured the series sweep, leading up to the Champions Trophy 2025. Gambhir noted that the atmosphere allowed for open discussions between junior and senior players alike.
“Look, it’s no one! I think there are some senior players there as well. There is Virat, there is Rohit, there are other guys as well. But the important thing is that the atmosphere is very open. You can just be yourself, and that’s very important,” Gambhir said.
Gambhir also stressed about not giving any importance to seniors and juniors in the dressing room and that he wants players to be themselves with the team.
“We want to try and create that culture, that energy in the dressing room where there is no senior or junior. We want guys to be themselves sometimes. That’s what the personality is, what we want to see in that dressing room,” stated Gambhir.
“The more open you are in the dressing room, the more free you want to be in the field. The more closed you are in the dressing room, the more closed you will be on the cricket field, and that’s the kind of culture we want to have in the dressing room,” he added.
He explained that he benched experienced fast bowler Mohammed Shami for the final following the series sweep.
Gambhir explained that since they were wanting to manage Mohammed Shami’s workload, he only played two matches each in the T20I and ODI series.
“We were trying to manage his workload, that’s the reason why we played him in two T20s and two ODIs and hopefiully, he will be fresh and ready to go in the Champions trophy,” he stated.
“The only reason was because we wanted another wicket-taking option in the middle and we know that what Varun Chakravarthy brings to the table,” he explained to defend dropping Jaiswal from the final squad of 15 for the Champions trophy.
