Gambhir has his way as SKY is new T20 captain for Lanka series

Gautam Gambhir has been always very much his own man. However, as he takes a fresh guard as head coach of Indian cricket team starting with the Sri Lanka tour, the two-time World Cup winner must have realised that he is not going to always have his way with the BCCI top brass (read: Jay Shah) easily.

 In a development widely reported in the national media, the selection committee meeting for the white ball tour of Lanka had to be deferred to Thursday as the new head coach and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar were not on the same page with Shah on the issue of T20 captaincy – which had fallen vacant after Rohit Sharma quit the format on the back of India’s World Cup win in the West Indies.

 The grapevine says while Gambhir and Agarkar were both keen to have a captain who does not have a history of injury and will not have any problems with workload management –with Suryakumar Yadav emerging as the dark horse, Shah’s contention was they had been grooming allrounder Pandya for the role. Surya, a proven customer in this format, was named eventually named the T20 captain on Thursday evening – which means the new coach has had his way for now.

 The choice of Rohit’s successor as T20I captain is not the only issue where Gambhir, who has been offered a higher pay package than Dravid (to the tune of Rs 12 crores), had to fight hard in getting his way. The two-time World Cup winner, who had laid down a pre condition about picking up support staff of his own and zero interference in running the team, has reportedly been chastised a number of times so far with his suggestions.

 It seems only one of his choices – Abhishek Nayar, who worked as assistant coach in the Kolkata Knight Riders camp – has received the nod of an assistant/batting coach. However, Gambhir’s preferences for a bowling coach between Vinay Kumar and Lakshmipathy Balaji had been turned down, so was his request for roping in overseas personnel in their specialised fields – either Jonty Rhodes  and Ryan ten Doeschate as fielding coaches or South African Morne Morkel as a bowling coach, respectively.

 However, the BCCI was unequivocal in their stance that they would stick to their plan of an all-Indian support staff as in recent past since the Gary Kirsten era. The trio of Vikram Rathour, Paras Mhambrey and fielding coach T. Dilip had served the team well in the last cycle under Dravid.

 No prizes for guessing that Shah, as the BCCI boss, wants to convey a simple message to Gambhir that the later cannot have a free run. There have been precedents when an incoming head coach has brought along men of his confidence, for example someone like a Ravi Shastri shot down the proposal of the ornamental Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) to bring back Bharat Arun as bowling coach or even Dravid got his backroom boys when he took over in end 2021.

 For now, Gambhir has managed to convince the powers that-be on the need to have a captain without a major history of breaking down frequently. Surya, no spring chicken at 33, had led India to a 4-1 T20I series win against Australia but the jury will still be out about him!  

T20I Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj. 

ODI Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.