Under the newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav, India earned their first T20I series victory in the ongoing three-match series in Sri Lanka. They comfortably gained a win in the very first game of the series, while defending a huge score.
The second affair was a little bit challenging thanks to the rain which made it a little tough for the Blue Brigade to chase the score. However, they did so well in that game too.
Gautam Gambhir, who has previously worked with Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as mentors, knows the demands of international career across formats.
Gautam Gambhir sets to take the first challenge with the return of senior players
The T20I series didn’t pose a huge challenge to the Indian team as they quite comprehensively earned the victories on both occasions. They also began the new chapter in the shortest format of the game quite smoothly.
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Now, they can expect a real challenge in the upcoming three-match ODI series in the same country, besides welcoming the captain Rohit Sharma, the superstar of world cricket- Virat Kohli, and some other senior members of the side like Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Kuldeep Yadav.
A close source of the Indian dressing room and its activities has told ESPNcricinfo that Gautam Gambhir’s biggest challenge would be to manage the ‘superstars’ of the Indian cricket team. He also felt that this job would be quite different from managing them during the Indian Premier League (IPL).
“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, and speak to players, and Dravid was good at doing that.” The source remarked.
He also remembered the period when it was difficult for the former head coach of the Indian team- veteran Rahul Dravid to manage the senior players of the side.
“Even Dravid, when he joined, would have found it a challenge with the landscape of cricket has 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.” He added.
The selection meeting of Gautam Gambhir and the chief selector Ajit Agarkar has revealed that both of them are not only looking at the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025 but have also kept an eye on the next edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, in India and Sri Lanka.
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He is getting most of the players involved in the ODI series, except for Hardik Pandya who is taking a break for the 50-over games in Sri Lanka.
Apart from this upcoming T20I series in Sri Lanka, India will only face England at home, just a few weeks before the Champions Trophy 2025 to prepare for the event. It will be interesting to see how Gautam Gambhir starts his new chapter after being united with Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and others.
