The Gautam Gambhir coaching era in Indian cricket is just about to start. Right from the time BCCI secretary Jay Shah announced that the World Cup-winning cricketer will be the next head coach of the Indian cricket team, anticipation has been rising. Gambhir has been known as someone who can guide a bunch of youngsters to glory and his success with Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL shows that. His first assignment as the Indian cricket team’s head coach starts with a tour of Sri Lanka where India will play the T20I and ODI series.

Most of the seniors who featured in the T20 World Cup 2024 are expected to be rested from the ODIs or have retired from the T20Is. The team combination will be impressive with the squad announcement coming soon. Ahead of the announcement, the official broadcaster of the World Cup, Star Sports, posted a video of Gautam Gambhir from 2023 where he speaks about ODI cricket and makes some interesting observations.

“First you need to identify players, who have got their fearless approach as well, probably in a format like 50 overs. You need to have a mixture of players. You need players who can anchor as well. Change in rule has made a huge difference. During that time you had one new ball. Now you have five new balls with five players inside. So, the role of a part-timer has gone out of the window. You don’t see enough reverse swing. You don’t see enough purchase for the finger spinners as well,” Gautam Gambhir said in the video. 

“But I always feel, when you talk about this new approach, you got to identify players who can adapt to those roles, or to that template very easily. Some people just cannot adapt to a template so why push them to play a certain way which doesn’t come naturally to them. So, for me identifying players and at the same time getting the right mix is very, very important rather than thinking that we have to play in a certain template, so we have to select all the 15 with a similar mindset or a similar template.”   

Gambhir will face his first major assignment next year when India play in the Champions Trophy. The World Test Championship final is also another prospect. It will be followed by the 2026 T20 World Cup and the 2027 ODI World Cup.