Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary slammed India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir and questioned his abilities as a coach, since Gambhir had only led as a mentor in the Indian Premier League.
Former Indian cricketer Manoj Tiwary has questioned India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir’s abilities after the Indian team failed to perform and faced a shocking loss to Australia in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Gambhir joined the Indian squad as head coach after Rahul Dravid, and is now facing criticism after Australia defeated India 3-1 in the five-match Test series.
Gambhir was appointed as India’s coach after he had mentored Indian Premier (IPL) franchise Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to a title win in 2024. Manoj explained that coaching a team is completely different from mentoring a team. Tiwary believes that everyone mixes up between a mentor and a coach.
“You tell me, before taking up coaching in the Indian team, did he have any coaching experience in first-class cricket or IPL or anywhere in the world? Did he coach any one of the teams? Mentoring and coaching are totally different. That is where everyone mixes up. That is where fans mix up, and a lot of others mix up. Coaching and mentoring are totally opposite. When you don’t have experience, how do you expect to perform? That is what is happening right now, and the results are there for everyone to see,” said Manoj Tiwary.
Gambhir joined as a head coach after India won the 2024 T20 World Cup title. Under his leadership, India lost an ODI series to Sri Lanka, and New Zealand after that. The most recent humiliation was India’s outing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. After losing this five-match Test series, the Rohit Sharma-led side is out of the run from World Test Championship (WTC) finals.
This year has been the first time since the inaugural season of the WTC that the Indian team is out from the contest. the next ICC assignment for Gambhir is going to be the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025, set to begin February 19 where India will play all their matches in Dubai.
