Veteran Indian National Cricket Team bowling all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin highlighted the key difference between current coach Gautam Gambhir and former coach Rahul Dravid.
World Cup winner Gautam Gambhir has joined the Indian team as head coach after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 after Rahul Dravid stepped down from the role.
Dravid left big shoes to fill as he made sure India won the T20 World Cup title and ended the ICC trophy drought in his last assignment. Apart from this, under the leadership of Rahul Dravid, India continued its dominance in world cricket and played the finals of ICC World Cup 2023 and ICC World Test Championship 2023 and also won the Asia Cup 2023.
Gautam Gambhir was appointed as the head coach despite not having much coaching experience as he only served as a mentor in the Indian Premier League. However, the BCCI has shown faith in Rahul Dravid as they asked him to get an Indian through.
So far, Gautam Gambhir has fulfilled his role in the side. He started his T20I series with a 3-0 clean sweep over Sri Lanka but lost his next ODI assignment against Lanka Lions 0-2.
However, after quickly forgetting the setback, Gautam Gambhir took over as the red-ball coach in the home Test series against Bangladesh and India and dominated the first match.
The coming months will be crucial for Gautam Gambhir and his team as it will decide whether India will play in the final of the ICC World Test Championship for the third time in a row.
Rahul Dravid wanted to set things right. With Gautam Gambhir, he doesn’t expect all that – Ravichandran Ashwin
After the first Test against Bangladesh, Ravichandran Ashwin revealed the key difference between Gautam Gambhir and Dravid. He said that Dravid is a serious coach who wants things to go well and Gambhir on the other hand is nothing like that.
Ravichandran Ashwin added that Gautam Gambhir is staying quite comfortable and tagged it as a “comfortable ranch”. It may be noted that Ashwin had earlier shared Gambhir’s dressing room during his playing days.
“I think he’s very relaxed. I like to call it the ‘relaxed ranch.’ He’ll be like, “you’re coming, please come.”. That’s it,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.
“As soon as Rahul bhai and I came, he wanted to set everything in order: even a bottle should be kept in a certain place, at a certain time. He is very organized. He wanted everything to be okay,” he added.
“With Gambhir, he doesn’t expect all that. He has a comfortable routine. He will be a man of the people. He will win everyone’s heart. I think he will be loved by the boys,” he said.
Meanwhile, India under Gambhir will play a three-match Test series against New Zealand after the Bangladesh series.
