NEW DELHI: Team India‘s new head coach Gautam Gambhir carries with him the hopes of the country that is fresh from T20 World Cup glory.
The 42-year-old, a skilled left-handed batsman who scored over 10,000 international runs across three formats, played a key part in India’s T20 World Cup win in 2007 and ODI World Cup win in 2011.
Back as mentor, Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL crown this year.
Gambhir has now succeeded Rahul Dravid who stepped down after celebrating victory in the T20 World Cup — India’s first global title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Gambhir’s tenure will officially get underway with the away series against Sri Lanka, that has 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs.
Ahead of the series, Star Sports shared a video of Gambhir talking about the importance of having a balanced mix of players in the team.
Flanked by former cricketers Irfan Pathan, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Kumar Sangakkara, Gambhir discusses team formation ahead of the Sri Lanka series.
Gambhir says in the video, “First you need to identify players who have got that fearless approach as well and probably in a format like 50 overs, you need to have a mixture of every kind of players. You should have players who can anchor the innings and change in rules has also made a huge difference. That time we used to have only on new ball, now we’ve got two new balls and five fielders inside, so the role of the part-timer has gone out of the window. You don’t see enough reverse swing anymore, you don’t see enough purchase for finger spinners as well, but I always feel that when we talk about this new approach, you got to identify players who can adapt to those roles, that template very easily. Some people just cannot adapt to that template. So why push them to play in a certain way which doesn’t come naturally to them. So for me I think indentifying players and at the same time getting the right mix is very very important rather than think that we have to play with a certain template so we got to select all the 15 with a similar mindset or with a similar template.”
The 42-year-old, a skilled left-handed batsman who scored over 10,000 international runs across three formats, played a key part in India’s T20 World Cup win in 2007 and ODI World Cup win in 2011.
Back as mentor, Gambhir led Kolkata Knight Riders to the IPL crown this year.
Gambhir has now succeeded Rahul Dravid who stepped down after celebrating victory in the T20 World Cup — India’s first global title since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Gambhir’s tenure will officially get underway with the away series against Sri Lanka, that has 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs.
Ahead of the series, Star Sports shared a video of Gambhir talking about the importance of having a balanced mix of players in the team.
Flanked by former cricketers Irfan Pathan, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Kumar Sangakkara, Gambhir discusses team formation ahead of the Sri Lanka series.
Gambhir says in the video, “First you need to identify players who have got that fearless approach as well and probably in a format like 50 overs, you need to have a mixture of every kind of players. You should have players who can anchor the innings and change in rules has also made a huge difference. That time we used to have only on new ball, now we’ve got two new balls and five fielders inside, so the role of the part-timer has gone out of the window. You don’t see enough reverse swing anymore, you don’t see enough purchase for finger spinners as well, but I always feel that when we talk about this new approach, you got to identify players who can adapt to those roles, that template very easily. Some people just cannot adapt to that template. So why push them to play in a certain way which doesn’t come naturally to them. So for me I think indentifying players and at the same time getting the right mix is very very important rather than think that we have to play with a certain template so we got to select all the 15 with a similar mindset or with a similar template.”
India have not won a global title in the ODI format since winning the Champions Trophy in 2013, and Gambhir would want to change that in the upcoming year.
Gambhir is the only Indian — and one of four international cricketers including Don Bradman, Jacques Kallis and Mohammad Yousuf — to have scored centuries in five successive Test matches.
