"Don't want to complicate things"- Gautam Gambhir's 1st message to team India after becoming the Head Coach

India's new head coach Gautam Gambhir will start his new role with the tour of Sri Lanka, where India will play three T20Is and three ODIs. Before leaving for the tour, Gambhir gave a big statement and claimed that he had big role to fill in and was looking forward to the role.

With senior players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja having retired from the T20I format after India's T20 World Cup 2024 win, Gambhir will have a big challenge to make a pool of players for the 2026 T20 World Cup, to be held in India and Sri Lanka.

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"Don't want to complicate things" - Gautam Gambhir

Before leaving for Sri Lanka, Gautam Gambhir had his first press conference as India's coach. Ajit Agarkar, the chief selector, was also present alongside Gambhir. Agarkar is also set to go to Sri Lanka with the team and discuss India's future roadmap for all the formats.

During the press conference, Gambhir clearly mentioned that he doesn't want to complicate things and wants to take this champion team forward.

"The most important thing for me is they (the players) will always have my back. A happy dressing room is important. I don't want to complicate things. I'm taking over a very successful team - the T20 world champions, the WTC runner-ups, and the ODI World Cup runner-ups. I have big shoes to fill in and looking forward to it," Gautam Gambhir said in the pre-departure press conference alongside Ajit Agarkar.

Gautam Gambhir was appointed India's head coach after Rahul Dravid's tenure came to an end after India's successful T20 World Cup 2024 campaign. Under Dravid, India reached new heights and became a dominant force across formats.

In a span of one year, India made it to three ICC tournament finals. Although the Men in Blue lost the WTC final and the ODI World Cup final in 2023, they went on to claim the T20 World Cup 2024 trophy to end India's ICC trophy drought. This was India's first ICC trophy in 11 years.

Gautam Gambhir's coaching experience

With India likely to go through a transition phase, especially in T20Is, Gautam Gambhir will have a huge responsibility to ensure a smooth transition within the team. The upcoming years will also see a no. of big ICC tournaments and India will be expected to perform well in all of them.

Meanwhile, Gautam Gambhir does not have a huge coaching experience but has worked as mentor in the IPL with Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight RIders. Gambhir was LSG's mentor for their first two IPL seasons in 2022 and 2023 in which the team made it to the playoffs.

Gambhir left LSG to join KKR for IPL 2024 and found unprecedented success there. Under his mentorship, Knight Riders became a formidable force and became the IPL 2024 champions. This was KKR's third IPL title. In the franchise's first two IPL title wins, Gambhir was KKR's captain. Thus, he has played a part in KKR's every title win so far.