Former Indian opener, Gautam Gambhir reckons playing at the international level isn’t a criterion to become a successful coach but it can be mandatory to become a national selector. Gambhir says the job of a coach, especially in T20 cricket, is to clear the mind of a player and align it towards achieving particular goals.

During a show on Star Sports, Gambhir said, “It’s not important that you have played a lot of cricket, for you to be a very successful coach – probably, that’s right for a selector, but not for a coach. Probably you can just have a different T20 batting coach, just for that particular format. It is really not true that someone who hasn’t played international cricket or who hasn’t played enough cricket, can’t become a successful coach.”

Gambhir, a two-time world cup winner, said that a coach couldn’t be teaching a batsman how to play a new shot as it can prove to be detrimental.

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Gautam explained, “What ultimately a coach does in a T20 format is frees your mindset and feeds your mindset and make you hit those goals and those big shots. No one teaches you how to hit a lap shot or a reverse lap shot, no coach can do that. If someone is trying to do that to a player, he is harming him more than actually making him a better player.”

Earlier the legendary Yuvraj Singh had suggested that selectors should be appointed on the basis of their experience in international cricket.

Yuvraj explained, “I always tell selectors to challenge calls. But if your selectors have played 4-5 ODI matches, their mindset is like that only. These things did not happen when Sourav (Ganguly) or Mahi (MS Dhoni) was captain. We had a very experienced team in the 2011 World Cup (which India won).”

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Former Indian all-rounder also questioned the logic behind choosing Vikram Rathour as India batting coach having not played enough international cricket.