Rahul Dravid was balanced, but Gautam Gambhir is...: Rishabh Pant delivers brutal verdict

The star India National Cricket Team wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has delivered a brutally honest verdict on the former and current head coach of the national - Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir.

Rahul Dravid had a highly successful tenure with the Indian team as after reaching multiple ICC finals, the Men In Blue finally managed to lift a World Cup and end their ICC trophy drought.

Under Dravid's tenure, India played the finals of the ICC World Test Championship 2023 and ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 against Australia. In both those matches, India faced heartbreaking defeats, but Rahul Dravid didn't give up.

Dravid received a contract extension from BCCI after the ODI World Cup final loss and he had one last shot to win the trophy with the team at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024. The duo of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma worked very hard for the tournament and made good game plans, which eventually helped them to win the final against South Africa and lift the T20 World Cup trophy.

As the T20 World Cup ended, the contract of Rahul Dravid with BCCI expired, and he parted ways with the Indian team. To replace him BCCI looked after several options but settled on Gautam Gambhir, who had no prior coaching experience.

Notably, Gautam Gambhir worked as the mentor of the Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League but he didn't serve as the head coach of any teams before taking the India job. Still, the BCCI trusted him and handed him a contract till 2027.

Gautam Gambhir has so far been involved in two series with the India National Cricket Team and has got a chance to work with the dynamic wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant.

Gautam Gambhir is very one-sided about the fact that you have to win - Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant, after spending a good amount of time with both coaches, has shared his verdict on the duo. Speaking on JioCinema ahead of the Duleep Trophy 2024, where he represents India B, Rishabh Pant bluntly said that both Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir are very different as the former is quite balanced, and the latter is quite aggressive.

Pant added that the newly-appointed India head coach is very 'one-sided' about winning, but he stressed the importance of maintaining a balanced approach.

“I feel Rahul bhai was very balanced as a human being and as a coach. It could be both good and bad. There are positives and negatives, and it depends on where individuals want to focus. Gauti bhai (Gambhir) is more aggressive, he's very one-sided about the fact that you have to win. But you need to find the right balance and improve,” Pant said.

Rishabh Pant, on Thursday, September 5, made his comeback to red-ball cricket, featuring in the Duleep Trophy 2024. Red-ball cricket is labelled the best format for Pant, but he disappointed with his performance on day 1. Rishabh Pant scored just 7 runs off 10 balls, before being dismissed by Akash Deep as Shubman Gill took a blinder to remove the wicketkeeper-batsman.

After the first round of the Duleep Trophy, Rishabh Pant will be seen in action in the home Test series against Bangladesh National Cricket Team, where he will be donning the whites for India after a very long time. He will be a crucial member of the Indian team in the coming months, considering the number of Test matches the Rohit Sharma-led side will play.