Former India head coach Ravi Shastri backed Gautam Gambhir, who took over the rein from Rahul Dravid as Team India head coach following the T20 World Cup triumph in the USA and the Caribbean last month. While Gambhir has the huge task of filling the boots of a World Cup-winning coach Shastri feels Gambhir will also bring a lot of ‘fresh ideas’ to the Indian team. However, he begins his stint with the limited-overs tour of Sri Lanka, starting with the T20Is on July 27 (Saturday) as well.
“We know with Gautam, he’s a no-nonsense guy,” Shastri said of Gambhir on the ICC Review. “He’ll have his ideas as well. And the good thing for him is he’s got a mature team. He’s got a settled team. I think even though you might think you’re mature, you might benefit from some fresh ideas. So I think it’ll be interesting times.”
Gautam Gambhir retired from all forms of the game in December 2018 and has remained associated with the sport. After a two-year stint as a mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants in 2022 and 2023 where they reached the playoffs, Gambhir returned to his franchise where he won his two IPL titles, as a mentor in 2024 and guided KKR straightaway to their third IPL title. And, Shastri reiterated the fact that Gambhir, as a contemporary in the sport, will be ‘refreshing’ for the Indian team too.
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“He’s contemporary, he just had a great season in the IPL. I think he’s the right age where he’s young, he’ll come with fresh ideas. He knows most of the players, especially in the white-ball format, having been part of teams in the IPL. So I think it’s refreshing,” Shastri opined. “Obviously, player management becomes the key as a coach. So it’ll be interesting to see how he goes. I think he’s got the tools, he’s got the goods for the job and he’s got the experience. It’s a question of just understanding his players as quickly as possible. What their strengths are, what kind of human beings they are and what kind of temperaments do they have. What are their personalities. A lot goes behind the scenes to understand a human being.”
“I think that will be his most important task, which I think again should not be a problem because he’s contemporary. He’s seen these guys from the outside, he’s dealt with a lot of guys who might have played with KKR as well and for Lucknow [Super Giants] when he was there. And he’s been around the circuit, the moment he finished cricket and that was not too long ago, he still is around, plays a lot of the legends cricket as well,” he again shared.
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However, Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment will see a mini-transition to undergo as following the World Cup win, India have lost the service of experienced trio – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja as they announced their retirement. However, Shastri added that the job will be tough not because of the void left behind by them, but with regards to picking from the lot of talent waiting to fill in as well.
“I think a lot of the players that won this T20 World Cup will still be around two years later (at the 2026 T20 World Cup). You mentioned the three players who retired (Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja), but barring them, I think most of the others will still be fit to be in that T20 World Cup team two years down the line in India. So I don’t think there’s much to be done there. In fact, you will get a problem on your hands because you’ll have to choose from the new lot that’s coming and there’s some real exciting talent there. There’s a queue out there and that will be his biggest challenge, but it’s a good headache when you have that kind of talent,” Ravi Shastri concluded.
