Former India head coach Ravi Shastri praised Gautam Gambhir for bringing fresh ideas to the national team, highlighting his recent IPL success and the challenge of integrating new talent following key retirements.
New Delhi: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said Gautam Gambhir will bring fresh ideas to the national men’s team when they begin their white-ball tour of Sri Lanka at Pallekele on Saturday.
Gambhir won IPL 2024 as mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders, before being appointed as new India head coach after Rahul Dravid’s tenure came to an end.
“He’s contemporary, he just had a great season in the IPL. I think he’s the right age where he’s young, he’ll come with fresh ideas. He knows most of the players, especially in the white-ball format, having been part of teams in the IPL. So I think it’s refreshing.”
“And we know with Gautam, he’s a no-nonsense guy. He’ll have his ideas as well. And the good thing for him is he’s got a mature team. He’s got a settled team, a mature team. I think even though you might think you’re mature, you might benefit from some fresh ideas. So I think it’ll be interesting times,” said Shastri on ICC Review show.
Shastri, a member of India’s 1983 ODI World Cup winning side, has backed Gambhir to come good in the top job. “Obviously, player management becomes the key as a coach. So it’ll be interesting to see how he goes. I think he’s got the tools, he’s got the goods for the job and he’s got the experience.”
He also said managing each player in the set-up across formats will be pivotal to Gambhir’s success as India head coach. “It’s a question of just understanding his players as quickly as possible. What their strengths are, what kind of human beings they are and what kind of temperaments do they have? What are their personalities? A lot goes behind the scenes to understand a human being.”
“I think that will be his most important task, which I think again should not be a problem because he’s contemporary. He’s seen these guys from the outside, he’s dealt with a lot of guys who might have played with KKR as well and for Lucknow (Super Giants) when he was there. And he’s been around the circuit, the moment he finished cricket and that was not too long ago, he still is around, plays a lot of the legends cricket as well.”
Gambhir’s first task in T20Is is to find the right players who can replace Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja in the side after the trio retired from the format post T20 World Cup triumph this year.
“There’s so many (good India) players out there and it’s just about getting the right mix. I think a lot of the players that won this T20 World Cup will still be around two years later (at the 2026 T20 World Cup).
“You mentioned the three players who were retired (Rohit, Kohli, Jadeja), but barring them, I think most of the others will be still fit to be in that T20 World Cup team two years down the line in India.
“So I don’t think there’s much to be done there. In fact, you will get a problem on your hands because you’ll have to choose from the new lot that’s coming and there’s some real exciting talent there.
“So I think it’s the other way around. It’s how do you get those guys in there that they’re bursting at the scenes to get it. There’s a queue out there and that will be his biggest challenge, but it’s a good headache when you have that kind of talent,” concluded Shastri.
