Ravi Shastri outlines Gautam Gambhir's most important task as new India head coach

Ravi Shastri added that Gambhir needs to understand players’ strengths and weaknesses.

Earlier this month, the BCCI appointed former cricketer Gautam Gambhir as the new head coach of the Indian cricket team. Gambhir took the reins from the legendary Rahul Dravid, who ended his coaching tenure on a memorable note by lifting the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 in Barbados.

After being appointed as the new head coach of Team India, Gambhir was proactive in terms of picking his coaching staff and selecting the Indian squad for the upcoming away white-ball tour against Sri Lanka.

The upcoming Sri Lanka white-ball tour will mark Gambhir’s first assignment with the Indian cricket team. The Men in Blue will first play a three-match T20I series from July 27 to July 30. After the T20Is, three ODIs are scheduled from August 2 to August 7.

BCCI named Suryakumar Yadav as the new skipper for the Indian side in the shortest format. Rohit Sharma will continue to lead the side in ODIs. Interestingly, youngster Shubman Gill has been appointed as the new vice-captain in both white-ball formats.

Gambhir’s tough task will be to understand his players: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri

Former Indian cricketer and head coach Ravi Shastri feels that Gambhir’s most important task as a new head coach will be to understand his players as quickly as possible.

Shastri further added that Gambhir has the advantage of working with a few Indian players during his role as a mentor at Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow Super Giants in the Indian Premier League.

“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,” Shastri said on Gambhir on the ICC Review.

“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 – and he still is around, plays a lot of the legends cricket as well,” former India head coach added.

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