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Kapil Dev has given his opinion on ‘slightly temperamental’ Gautam Gambhir’s India head coach tenure.
Gautam Gambhir. (AFP)
Former India captain Kapil Dev believes that though Gautam Gambhir has taken the job of the men’s head coach with high expectations on him, the responsibility of the team’s slump ultimately lies on the players taking the field in matches.
Gambhir’s position has come under extreme scrutiny in the last couple of months. Under him, India have lost the only ODI series against Sri Lanka, got whitewashed at home to New Zealand and then failed to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time since 2017, losing the away series 3-1.
“The expectations are high. The coaches are not on the field, but the captain and the team are on the ground. A new coach will come up with his own ideas and hope it will serve the country in a better sense. If he’s not, then people will raise their finger,” the 66-year-old Dev told Gulf News.
“Gambhir is a slightly temperamental person. He’s different from Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid. Every coach has his own way of thinking, so let’s hope he will do better for the country,” Dev said further.
Unlike his predecessors Dravid and Shastri, Gambhir’s tenure has been severely marred by leaks and reports from inside the dressing room. Some have claimed that his coaching ideals haven’t sat well with the team and the skipper Rohit Sharma — who has been taking a big share of criticism — others have said all is not well between him and his assistant coaches, too.
So far, the BCCI has strongly denied these rumors.
“It’s a completely wrong statement,” Shukla told media persons in New Delhi. “There is no rift between the chairman of the selection committee (Ajit Agarkar) and the coach, and no rift between the captain and the coach. This is all rubbish being spread by a section of the media.”
Still, the pressure on a men’s coach hasn’t been higher this decade. His upcoming assignments are equally tough, starting with an eight-match white-ball series against England at home, followed by the 2025 Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE. If India were to concede more defeats, the axe might loom over him even more strongly.
