Former Sri Lanka batter Russel Arnold said that the appointment of Gautam Gambhir as Team India’s new head coach is a positive decision. According to the veteran, players will get comfortable after a while in a familiar environment and a change of personnel can help them too. However, Gautam Gambhir has replaced Rahul Dravid as the new head coach of the senior Indian men’s team. In his last assignment as India coach, Dravid guided the team to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup. On the other hand, the white ball series in Sri Lanka, starting on Saturday, July 27, will be Gambhir’s first assignment as India’s coach as well.

Speaking to News 18, Arnold said, “So sometimes players, when we play, we are able to go out there and perform, but then it becomes a challenge to get a message across, and get others to perform, which Gautam Gambhir has shown that he can do. We definitely know it’s going to be a different style. There’ll be a bit of adjustment for people to come to terms with Gautam Gambhir, but I think the change is also good because then you become too familiar with one system and hence they’ll be shaken up, maybe even woken up that you still need to get better and you still need to perform a lot more.”

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However, the India vs Sri Lanka series will begin with the first T20I at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The rest two T20Is will also be played at the same venue on July 28 and July 30 as well. While Gambhir has been named India’s new head coach, Suryakumar Yadav also takes over as T20I captaincy role from Rohit Sharma.

Speaking about his equation with the coach, Suryakumar Yadav said, “Our bond has always been special. From 2014 till now, it has been exactly 10 years. In 2018, I joined another [IPL] franchise and he joined another franchise. But we used to talk regularly about the game. When he used to play with another team, I used to play with him. We used to discuss the game to see if we could do better in that match.”