Former New Zealand cricketer Scott Styris has warned the new Head Coach of India, Gautam Gambhir of an aggressive style with the Greg Chappell example before his Team India coaching debut. However, Gambhir’s first assignment as India’s head coach begins when they play Sri Lanka in the opening T20I of the three-match series in Pallekele. However, India registered a win comfortably. Meanwhile, Greg Chappell coached India from 2005 to 2007 in what turned out to be a horrifying period in Indian cricket. Apart from his controversies with mainly Sourav Ganguly and other senior players, the side also endured a poor first-round exit in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
In an interview with News18, Styris said, “I look at someone like John Wright when he was in charge of India, he had a very happy dressing room from what we could understand. But then you had Greg Chappell who was quite abrasive and aggressive and it didn’t work for those senior players. I think Gautam Gambhir will look to get that mix right. I’ve always found captains will end up coaching just like their captaincy. And we all saw the way Gautam Gambhir was a captain. He was very abrasive, he was aggressive, he was all of those things you describe. And I don’t think it’ll be any different as a coach. He certainly has the experience. He’s an intelligent cricketer. If he can continue doing what he was doing with KKR, then India have got themselves a good coach.”
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However, recently, Gautam Gambhir helped the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) win the IPL 2024 title as a team mentor as well. The veteran also enjoyed an illustrious playing career for India, helping the team win the 2007 T20 and 2011 ODI World Cups as well. Scott Styris feels Gautam Gambhir’s role would be similar to a company’s CEO – focusing on the overall direction of the team rather than one-on-one with the players as well.
“What we’re seeing a lot now is you have a head coach who’s almost like a CEO of a company. He sits above that. And then the coaches that do all the work, batting, bowling, fielding, et cetera, are all sitting underneath the head coach. So, I don’t expect the head coach to do that much one-on-one coaching. Gautam Gambhir is responsible for the whole team taking them in a certain direction,” concluded Scott Styris.
