"He is not a foreign coach.." Ashish Nehra feels Gautam Gambhir made a strategic blunder during SL vs IND ODI series

Gautam Gambhir recently took over the head coach duties of the Indian team, replacing Rahul Dravid.

While Gautam Gambhir started his stint as India‘s head coach with a 3-0 sweep of the T20I series against Sri Lanka, he now faces the danger of losing his first ODI series in the role.

At the R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, Sri Lanka have taken an unassailable 1-0 lead in the SL vs IND ODI series with a victory in the second ODI, which followed a tie in first ODI.

The third and last ODI of the series will be played on August 7. India are pushed into a must-win situation to avoid a series loss. Sri Lanka will aim for a first ODI series win over India since 1997.

Ashish Nehra reckons Gautam Gambhir shouldn’t have played Rohit-Kohli in this series

Former India pacer Ashish Nehra feels that Gautam Gambhir has erred on the part of a strategy where he could have tried out a couple more players in this series instead of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.

After this series and before the Champions Trophy 2025, India have only one ODI series left – against England in February 2025 at home. Nehra opined that Gambhir should have given opportunities to more fringe players against Sri Lanka rather than playing Rohit and Kohli, whose quality is already known.

“The next series India play is 2-3 months later, a rare thing for us. So for players like Rohit and Kohli…I feel there was a better chance of giving opportunities to other players during this series. I know Gambhir is a new coach, and he wants to spend some time with the experienced players, but it isn’t like he doesn’t know the two of them,” Ashish Nehra said on Sony Sports.

“He is not a foreign coach who wants to get his equation right with Kohli and Rohit. So it was a good opportunity for him to try out the new players, and Rohit and Kohli could play when the home season begins. I’m not saying it is a wrong approach, but it could have been one of the strategies in this series,” Nehra added.

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