New chapter under Gambhir begins

CHENNAI: For about 25 minutes, the questions kept coming. It was always expected to be the case. After all, India’s new head coach, Gautam Gambhir, was addressing the media for the first time. Sitting by his side was the selection committee chairman Ajit Agarkar.

There was a lot to unpack. From Suryakumar Yadav getting the T20I captaincy ahead of Hardik Pandya, and Shubman Gill named as vice-captain across formats, to the future of Ravindra Jadeja and Suryakumar in ODIs and the support staff for the series... a lot of questions needed answers.

Gambhir and Agarkar clarified one thing after another without mincing words. There were no ambiguous answers starting from why Surya was named as T20 captain. Agarkar started with the Mumbai batter being one of the deserving candidates, but made clear of the factors that were involved. One, Pandya’s fitness. Two, feedback from the dressing room.

“The one (Surya) we know has been around the dressing room over the last year and we got feedback from the dressing room too. He has got a good cricketing brain and he is still one of the best T20 batters in the world,” Agarkar said, before adding, “You want a captain that’s going to be more likely to play all the games. We think he’s a deserving candidate and hopefully we’ll see over time how he develops into the role.”

While mentioning that it would help the team manage Pandya’s workload better, Agarkar also made it clear that they were in a fix when Pandya got injured and Rohit Sharma was not available for T20Is after the ODI World Cup last year. It eventually led them to name Gill as vice-captain so that should there be a case of injury or form, they don’t have to go back to someone else.

“Shubman is the guy we feel, he’s a three format player. He seems to show a lot more qualities over the last year or so from the dressing room. That’s why we want to have somebody who can learn from the senior guys,” he said.

If the chief selector cleared the air that Jadeja was only rested and Surya is not considered for ODIs at the moment, Gambhir gave the details of the support staff for the Sri Lanka tour, something the BCCI hadn’t made public before.

The former India captain confirmed that Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate would be his assistant coaches while Sairaj Bahutule and T Dilip serve as bowling and fielding coaches, respectively, for the tour.

“Really happy with the BCCI. They’ve agreed with most things I’ve asked for. The crux of the support staff will remain as they are. The rest of the staff will be finalised after the Sri Lanka tour,” Gambir said.

Meanwhile, both the chief selector and head coach were on the same page on players being available as much as possible. Whether it is Rohit and Virat Kohli for ODIs or the Test pros playing Duleep Trophy before the long international season, they ensured the message was clear.

Gambhir said: “I’ve said it before, workload management for someone like (Jasprit) Bumrah is important. If you are a batter who is in good form, might as well play all the games. Now that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will play only two formats, I expect them to be available for most games.”

Meanwhile, Agarkar said, “I haven’t discussed with Gautam yet. It’s not always easy. But there will certainly be enough players out of that squad that are likely to play the first (Duleep Trophy) game at least. That’s the only game they can really play. We’ll sit down and discuss which guys really need to play,” Agarkar said.

As for his approach in this new role, Gambhir’s answer largely revolved around three phrases — freedom, security and winning.

“My experience or my learning have been very simple. In sport, it’s all about winning, so I don’t deviate from something like that,” he said, before adding, “Sometimes, international cricket can be tough and it can be insecure as well because only 15 can play. But it’s the job of the support staff to try and keep them in a happy state and that is going to be one thing which we definitely will be working for.”

It is still early days and one will have to wait and see how Gambhir’s tenure goes, especially when they are challenged on the field. For now, however, one thing seems clear. It really is a new chapter in Indian cricket, something that could be very different from recent times.