With the triumphant T20 World Cup 2024 campaign over, Gautam Gambhir took up the Indian cricket team head coach position that was vacated by Rahul Dravid’s departure. Although he has no coaching experience with state or Ranji teams, Gambhir performed excellently as a mentor to Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders over the last three years. He faced little competition from anybody including former Indian batsman WV Raman who was also in contention for this job.
Many more names were linked to it, but most of them showed no interest at all. This was explained earlier by Sehwag who is one of the former stars of Indian cricket.
Sehwag himself notes however that he wouldn’t want such a job either; instead, he would prefer holding an analogous position within an IPL franchise.
According to him, this is not what he wants but if IPL offers me a coaching assignment then I can definitely consider it. Becoming India’s head coach will require going back into same routine which I followed for fifteen years. It entails being away from home almost eight or nine months each year. My children are fourteen and sixteen years old they need me around them. Both of them play cricket for Delhi.
“One is an opening batter and the other one is an off-spinner. I need to help them with cricket and spend time. If I was appointed as India coach, distancing myself from the players would be what I would face every day. I will also lack time for my children. In contrast, there are numerous roles such as coach or mentoring positions that may be available for me in IPL,” Sehwag said while talking to Amar Ujala.
Rahul Dravid’s name has been associated with a return as mentor to his previous franchise Rajasthan Royals when IPL 2025 season kicks off. With IPL comprising only of 2-3 months every year, retired stars have enough time to indulge in T20 since it demands approximately 10 months per year from Indian team management.
