Gautam Gambhir to travel alongside India A team to England before test tour - Reports

Gautam Gambhir recently guided India to ICC Champions Trophy triumph as head coach.

India head coach Gautam Gambhir has decided to set in motion his next plan after winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. Currently all the Indian players have dispersed to their respective Indian Premier League (IPL)teams for the IPL 2025. But the next assignment for the Indian team will be the five-match test tour of England.

The head coach of India is scheduled to visit England with the A squad prior to the five-match test series between the two teams, according to reports in the Times of India.

As the Indian test coach, Gautam Gambhir has come under intense scrutiny. Things have been tough for the team ever since he assumed the position. After New Zealand defeated them 3-0 last year, they suffered their first-ever home defeat, and the Rohit Sharma-led team had a dismal tour of Australia.

The Pat Cummins-led team crushed India 3-1 in the five-match series, humiliating Gambhir’s team in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024–25. As a result, the team coached by Rohit Sharma was eliminated from the race for the final of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25.

Gautam Gambhir to travel with India A team to England before the five-match test tour

According to reports, head coach Gambhir began making plans for it in January of this year and would like to start it off on a strong note. According to a source close to the BCCI, Gambhir claimed that as soon as he got back from Australia, he wanted to go to England with India A.

Additionally, he stated that prior to the test tour, the head coach himself wishes to keep an eye on the reserve pool.

“Gambhir has been in discussions with the BCCI since he returned from Australia. He has expressed his desire to travel with the India ‘A’ team to get a clearer view of the reserve pool. With India winning the Champions Trophy after Gambhir’s insistence for certain wild card players, one may expect him to assert more in the future,” a BCCI source told Times of India.

Gautam Gambhir will become the first Indian coach to travel with the developmental side if it happens.

According to the sources, Gautam Gambhir wants to personally assess the situation and wants more A tours. As was the case when Rahul Dravid oversaw the National Cricket Academy, the head coach hopes to bring back the shadow tours.

“One of the crucial issues identified is reviving India ‘A’ tours. There have been only a handful of series after Dravid left NCA and all of those were shadow tours for a marquee series. Gambhir, too, believes that there needs to be more ‘A’ tours. That’s why he wants to take stock of the situation firsthand,” the report further added.

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