Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, who is set to embark on his new journey as the Indian team’s head coach, recently underscored the importance of players participating in all formats of the game. Gambhir’s appointment follows the conclusion of Rahul Dravid’s tenure, which ended with India clinching the T20 World Cup title on June 29. Unlike his predecessor, Gambhir’s coaching experience primarily comes from his role as a mentor for IPL teams, notably leading Kolkata Knight Riders to a championship in IPL 2024.
Gautam Gambhir’s contract as the Indian head coach extends until December 31, 2027, with his first assignment being India’s white-ball tour to Sri Lanka in July-August. In an interview with Star Sports, Gambhir shared his philosophy on player management and format selection, strongly advocating for cricketers capable of excelling across all formats.
“I’m a very strong believer in one thing: if you’re good, you should be playing all three formats. I’ve never been a big believer in injury management. You get injured, you go get recovered. As simple as it gets. When you’re playing international cricket and you’re good enough, you ask any of the top players, they want to play all three formats,” he said.
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Gambhir’s approach prioritizes consistent play over workload management. He believes that even if a player gets injured, they should recover and continue playing all formats rather than dropping any one format for workload management.
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“Injuries are part of a sportsman’s life. And if you’re playing all three formats, you get injured, you go back, get recovered, but you should be playing all three formats. I am not a big believer in identifying people that we’re going to keep him for test matches or other formats. We’re going to manage his injury and workload and stuff,” he added. “Professional cricketers have a very small span when they’re playing for their country, and they want to play as much as they can. When you’re in very good form, go ahead and play all three formats,” he continued.
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Addressing the issue of player labelling, Gambhir believes no cricketer should be tagged to just one format and should aim to represent the nation in all formats of the game.
“They don’t want to stay, and they don’t want to be labelled as red-ball bowlers or white-ball bowlers,” he concluded.
