Photo Credit: Twitter Profile Photo of @JayShah, Instagram Photo of @gautamgambhir55
Rahul Dravid concluded his tenure as Team India’s head coach after the T20 World Cup in June, held in the West Indies and the USA. As he expressed no interest in an extension, Gautam Gambhir was appointed as India’s all-format head coach.
Despite expectations that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might follow the approach of other cricket boards, such as the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket South Africa (CSA), and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), by appointing different coaches for different formats, the BCCI chose to maintain a single-coach system by naming Gambhir as the head coach across all formats.
Recently, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah explained the board’s decision to stick with this approach.
Shah explained, “We’ve to listen to the coach we recruit. Once we have selected Gautam Gambhir and if he is interested to coach in all three formats, who am I to say ‘you can’t coach a particular format’. More or less 70 per cent players are the same in all three formats.“
Mentioning that India had enough back-ups for the head coach role, Shah pointed out, “We have coaches from the NCA. When Rahul Dravid was taking a break, VVS Laxman used to step in.”
Gautam Gambhir has been appointed as India’s head coach until the 2027 ODI World Cup. His tenure began with India’s recent tour of Sri Lanka, where they won the T20I series 3-0 but lost the ODI series 2-0.
In leadership changes, Suryakumar Yadav has taken over as T20I captain following Rohit Sharma’s retirement from the format, though Rohit continues to lead in Tests and ODIs. Shubman Gill served as vice-captain during the Sri Lanka tour.
The Indian team is currently on a break and will resume action next month, starting with a home series against Bangladesh, featuring two Tests and three T20Is.
