New Delhi: People who know Gautam Gambhir, describe him as someone “boringly consistent”, someone who has not even changed his eating pattern in the last 20 years.
An experiment is out of question.
He loves wearing his denims for casual gatherings and it has not changed for years.
But when it comes to cricket, his brain is always ticking and seeking solutions to various strategic problems.
It has been eight months since Gambhir took charge of the national team after Rahul Dravid ended his stint with the T20 World Cup triumph in July.
The man from Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar has witnessed some heartbreaking and baffling defeats as well as success. He has seen both ends of the spectrum with high of Champions Trophy and low of six Test losses.
The CT win has come like a breath of fresh air and ‘Guru Gambhir’ will get a chance to analyse the big picture as Indian cricket is expected to undergo a sea-change in the next two crucial years.
It won’t be wrong to say that Gambhir has completed his probation period and will get into a phase where he would have three distinct challenges, starting with the Test tour of England.
That will be, as usual, right after the T20 spectacle known as IPL with no time for preparation.
His second big challenge will be the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka where Suryakumar Yadav’s men will be defending their title.
And last but certainly not the least is 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, which will be a helluva challenge.
If one segregates Gambhir’s coaching across formats, he has already built a fabulous core for the T20 team with Surya at the helm.
Even as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja walked into the sunset in shortest format, their absence was hardly felt as the new brand of cricket that India has been playing in T20 is earning them fans globally.
He has unearthed a gem in Abhishek Sharma.
When Varun Chakravarthy and Jasprit Bumrah would bowl during a global meet (World T20) those eight overs would be a nightmare for batters. Sanju Samson has found his mojo although Rishabh Pant will be around and so would be Yashasvi Jaiswal.
There is a prolific powerplay wicket-taker in Arshdeep Singh and at least three seam all-rounders in Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Shivam Dube.
Surya and Axar along with Hardik are old guards in this team. It is a team which has all its bases covered and is running on auto-pilot with a tweak here and there.
But it is the other two formats where Gambhir, the strategist, the disciplinarian and the man-manager would have to merge for results.
Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have made it clear that they are not retiring from ODIs anytime soon. Retirement is an individual call and both have performed in Champions Trophy.
But during the 2027 World Cup Gambhir won’t have the option of using four specialist spinners and create magic with totals in range of 240-250.
Scores will be on higher side and the question is if Rohit with his short and aggressive bursts can do enough along with Kohli, who is now more of an anchor now.
Rohit has said that he won’t retire but was also unsure of his participation in the 2027 World Cup. Here, Gambhir will have to step in. Gambhir’s, ‘team first’ philosophy won’t change.
He loaths the superstar culture. He has immense respect for performers which is seniority neutral.
It will not be a surprise if he demands a bit of clarity both from the board as well as national selection committee as to how they plan to see Rohit in ODI scheme of things with only 27 ODI games ahead of World Cup.
Another issue to ponder over would be the next captain? Shubman Gill is a terrific ODI player and has been Rohit’s deputy but Hardik Pandya is also a good leader, who believes in implementing the coach’s strategy to the ‘T’.
He did that well in Gujarat Titans with another football team-like head coach Ashish Nehra at the helm.
In immediate future, Gambhir will also have to deal with Test cricket squad where he would face the maximum challenge.
In case Rohit plays and has Jaiswal and KL Rahul in top-three, where will it place Shubman Gill, the Test cricketer.
Will he get all three Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammad Siraj in best shape for the series where swing and seam will be the order of the day.
And what happens to that one middle-order slot that has been India’s Achilles heel for some time. Shall Karun Nair fit in there or Shreyas Iyer should regain his Test place?
‘Guru Gambhir’ has some really tough choices to make but he has never been afraid of making bold decisions.
