Gautam Gambhir warned about task that Rahul Dravid was good at
Published - 30 Jul 2024, 10:13 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:16 AM
Gautam Gambhir won his first T20I series as head coach of the Indian cricket team. However, according to sources close to the Indian team, his real task begins in the ODI series.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have reached Sri Lanka for the three-match ODI series. The matches will be played in Colombo with the first match starting from Friday, August 2. The next two matches will be played on August 4 and 7.
Rohit Sharma will continue as the ODI skipper with Gautam Gambhir taking over from Rahul Dravid as the next head coach of the Indian team.. He has been playing international cricket regularly since the ODI World Cup. Having retired from T20I cricket after India's World Cup win he found some time to rest. Similar is the case with Virat Kohli.
Meanwhile, sources close to the Indian dressing room said that Gambhir's biggest challenge will start now as he has to manage Rohit and Virat along with other senior players in the ODI team. Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya will not play in the ODI series. Jasprit Bumrah too has been rested.
Rohit and Kohli both wanted to skip the ODI series against Sri Lanka but made themselves available on Gautam Gambhir's special request. Both have even clarified that the two will be working towards a similar team goal of making the team win and be ready to forget their past.
Not An Easy Task: Dressing Room Source On Gautam Gambhir Managing Senior Players
"It is not an easy task. It is not like a franchise model, where you are the boss and you can dictate terms. That won't work here. In the India dressing room you will have to pick up the phone, speak to players, and Dravid was really good at doing that. Even Dravid, when he joined, would have found it a challenge with the landscape of cricket having changed since he retired: everyone is a multimillionaire and is a captain of his respective franchise. So that's Gambhir's biggest challenge - dealing with players," the source said.
A report further revealed the details of the selection process that was undertaken to select the T20I and ODI squads for the Sri Lanka series. BCCI's chief selector, Ajit Agarkar, included Gambhir in the selection meeting and also addressed a press conference answering queries before leaving for Sri Lanka.
The coach and the selection committee seem to have a longer vision with the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 followed by the 2016 T20 World Cup and they have already won with their process of preparing core teams for the two formats.
It was Agarkar who answered all the major queries on team selection including why Suryakumar Yadav was chosen over Hardik Pandya as the captain of the Indian T20I side. Gambhir's major response was on Hardik's role within the Indian T20I and ODI sides now that he is not considered even for the vice-captaincy role across the two white-ball formats.
Meanwhile, India dominated Sri Lanka in the first two T20Is winning by 43 runs in the first game and by seven wickets in the second. The Sri Lankan batting lineup crumbled in both games under pressure situation which is seen as the main reason behind their losses.
Also Read: "There's an aura right there" - Gautam Gambhir's 'biggest quality' revealed by Venkatesh Iyer
