2024-08-22 19:30:39
New Delhi: When the Test series between India and Bangladesh begins, not only will Team India captained by Rohit Sharma be in its full strength, but every player of the support staff captained by Gautam Gambhir will also be on the front. There are mainly 5 players (coaches) in his team. He will be seen as the head coach of Team India in a series on Indian soil for the first time. This is a matter of pride for both him and Indian cricket. There are very few international teams whose coach is from their own country and there are very few players who get the opportunity to coach the team for which they themselves once played.
First of all, look at Gambhir’s support staff
Gautam Gambhir’s team includes Abhishek Nair, T. Dilip, foreign bowling coach Morne Morkel and assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate. T. Dilip’s tenure has been extended. He was also included in Rahul Dravid’s team as fielding coach. There was a time when Gambhir was completely in favor of giving the coaching of Team India to Indian coaches. According to NDTV, in a statement in December 2022, Gautam Gambhir even said that foreign coaches can ruin our cricket.
While praising Lalchand Rajput, he said- Foreigners can ruin him
Gambhir had said that Indian coaches have proven themselves in the past and gave the example of Lal Chand Rajput, under whose leadership India won the first ICC T20 International World Cup in 2007. Gambhir had criticized foreign coaches and said that they can spoil Indian cricket. He had said- Yes, we do not want and do not need foreign coaches for our team, they can spoil your cricket and team, what is wrong with Indian coaches? What have they done wrong? We won the 2007 T20 World Cup under the coaching of Lal Chand Rajput.
Questions were raised- what did the foreign coaches do other than Gary
The former Indian opener also talked about India’s victory in the Australia and Sri Lanka tri-series, in which Rajput was the team’s coach. Gambhir had said- We also won the CB series for the first time in Australia with the same coach, but we remember the 2011 World Cup victory and coach Gary Kirsten. He had questioned the coaching tenure of previous foreign coaches. He had said- What special work did Duncan Fletcher and John Wright do? We have to show faith in our local players and coaches.
There was also praise for Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh
Gambhir, who played a key role in India’s World Cup victories in 2007 and 2011, also praised the bowlers’ contribution. He said why we should always remember the players who scored 97 and 91 runs in the World Cup final. Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh played a key role in India’s victory and their efforts were equal to those of the batsmen, so we have to remember them too.
If Morne Morkel becomes the bowling coach of Team India then Zaheer can go to LSG
Zaheer Khan, however, can be seen in the role of Gambhir i.e. mentor in Lucknow Super Giants, while Harbhajan Singh is trying his hand at commentary. On the other hand, Gambhir, who advocates for Indian coaches, has two foreign coaches in his team. It is also interesting that if reports are to be believed, he had suggested many Indian names as bowling coach, but BCCI did not approve their names. However, nothing was said openly about this from both sides.