Desk Report,
Who is actually running the Indian team?
Captain or coach – who is leading the Indian cricket team at the moment? If the captain’s name was Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Virat Kohli, this question might not have arisen now. Or if the current Indian coach was not Gautam Gambhir, such a question might not have come up directly.
Who is actually running the Indian team?
However, the question is becoming stronger because the young Shubman Gill is the Indian Test captain. Especially in the context of the various decisions made by the team management in the India-England ‘Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy’, the playing XI or on the field.
Gambhir has led Kolkata and Delhi in the IPL for a long time as a captain. As a captain, it was said that he always arranged the playing XI according to his own preferences. Then, by serving as a mentor, he made Kolkata the champion in 2024. Shreyas Iyer led the team in that season. He left Kolkata the next season due to insufficient achievements. It is understood that no matter who Gambhir mentors or captains he is, the team runs according to his plan. Does Gambhir run the team in the same way even after becoming the India coach? Maybe. That is why he has given place to his favorite people in the coaching staff. He has made Morne Morkel the bowling coach, Ryan ten Deschamps the fielding coach. In the meantime, stars like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have also retired from the Test team. That means, there is no one in the current team to challenge Gambhir.
Can you blame such a powerful coach, this is my team. I will decide the XI! Cricket analyst Harsha Bhogle put this question to Sunil Gavaskar regarding Kuldeep Yadav being left out of the XI for four consecutive Tests. In response, Gavaskar said, ‘We did not have any coaches. We had former players with us, who were managers or assistant managers. They were people you could go to and talk to. They would give some advice at lunch, after the day’s play or the night before the match. So this dual role of captain and coach is difficult for me to understand. When I was captain, we didn’t have any former players with us.
