This July, Gautam Gambhir was appointed for the job of head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team just after guiding Kolkata Knight Riders to their title victory in IPL 2024. Gambhir, who has also bagged two IPL titles as captain of KKR in 2012 and 2014, had coached none in the IPL or domestic cricket previously.
However, given Gambhir’s clout in the two franchises he played for, KKR and the Lucknow SuperGiants, he was considered good enough to land the top job. There were high hopes from the two-time world cup winner, but in the last eight months, results have been mixed-first time in history India went down to New Zealand at home in a Test series and lost to Australia in a Test series after ten years.
Apart from poor showings on the field, Gambhir’s tenure has seen him be subjected to severe criticism because of reportedly souring relationships with Indian players.
While no current India player has come out openly to complain about Gambir and his methods, reports of unrest with the Indian team have circulated on the Internet several times over the last few months.
During the India tour of Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Gambhir reportedly berated players for not sticking to the team’s plans-after India lost the fourth Test in Melbourne during the third session of the fifth day because of seven wickets down. Gambhir, in his review, warned players that those who fail to follow his strategies could be shown the exit door.
After the Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss of the Indian team in 2024-25, the former left-handed batter, 42, pushed for Indian batters to play domestic cricket. The BCCI acted on Gambhir’s suggestion to wind up the star culture in Team India and issued a 10-point diktat for players.
In its new 10-point policy for ‘discipline and unity,’ BCCI made domestic matches compulsory, imposed a ban on family members and personal staff accompanying the teams on tours, and prohibited any individual commercial endorsements during the series.
The former left-hander, Gambhir, is in the spotlight one more time as claims are being made that he has an unfriendly relationship with a particular wicketkeeper-batter from India.
Star stumper is angry with Gambhir as he takes a dim view of the decision to take away his spot in the first XI in ODIs because a certain ‘external reason’ allegedly did him in.
Gambhir would certainly want to silence any such rumors by taking his team to winning the Champions Trophy.
