Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has been appointed as the head coach for India’s cricket team. The announcement was made by BCCI secretary Jay Shah on Tuesday evening. Gambhir replaces Rahul Dravid, who took on the role of head coach on November 3, 2021.
Gautam Gambhir’s first assignment as coach will be a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka, comprising three ODIs and three T20Is, starting from July 27.
This is not the first time that GG will mentor a team. He has previously mentored the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in 2024 and the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in 2023 and 2022. Under his mentorship, KKR won the IPL title, winning 11 of the 15 matches they played, with an impressive win percentage of 73 per cent. As a mentor for LSG, he led the team to the playoffs in both seasons, with the team winning 17 of their 30 matches.
CAPTAINCY RECORD
Gambhir had a short stint as captain of the Indian cricket team, when he led them in six ODI matches and won all of them. Among these six, five were during New Zealand’s tour of India in November 2010. He was also awarded the ‘Player of the Series’ for scoring 329 runs.
In the IPL universe, Gambhir’s first captaincy was leading the Delhi Daredevils in 2010, when they came fifth out of eight teams. His fortunes improved when he became captain of KKR in 2012, leading them to victory that year as well as in 2014. As IPL team captain, he played 129 matches and won 71 of them, a decent win percentage of 55 per cent.
Comparing Gambhir’s playing record to that of the outgoing coach Rahul Dravid, the latter has more experience in ODIs and Test matches, while the former has played more T20 matches. Both batsmen have a seesaw comparison when it comes to records. While Dravid’s batting strike rate in ODIs is 71.23, Gautam’s is 85.25. In Test matches, Rahul has a better batting average of 52.31 compared to Gambhir’s 41.95, but Gambhir’s strike rate of 51.49 beats Dravid’s 42.51.
DRAVID’S IMPRESSION COACHING RECORD
Under Dravid’s coaching, the Indian team achieved the No. 1 spot in all three cricket formats. India won 73 per cent of its ODI matches, winning 41 of the 56 it played. In T20Is, the team won 48 of 68 matches (70 per cent), and the Test team won five matches out of eight played (62.5 per cent).
However, Dravid faced challenges during ICC trophy matches, with India reaching the finals of the 2021-23 World Test Championship, and the 2023 ODI World Cup. However, Dravid ended his coaching tenure on a high with the Indian team winning the ICC T20 World Cup in June 2024.
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