Dinesh Karthik highlights what Gautam Gambhir brings to table as India's head coach: ‘Very fierce, intense and always…’

A new era is all set to begin in Indian cricket, with Gautam Gambhir taking over the charge as Team India's head coach. Gambhir replaced Rahul Dravid for one of the biggest positions in Indian cricket after the latter guided the Men in Blue to the T20 World Cup triumph. During his tenure, Dravid took the Indian team to great heights and helped them reach the final of three ICC events - WTC 2023, ODI World Cup 2023 and T20 World Cup 2024, and he eventually helped them end the ICC title drought with a historic win in Barbados last month.

Gambhir will be under a bit of pressure to carry forward Dravid's rich legacy, but veteran India wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is confident about the former KKR mentor's coaching prowess.

Karthik pointed out the two things Gambhir, as a coach, will bring to the Indian team, which will benefit them in dominating world cricket.

“He’s a very good leader. I think he will bring two things to the Indian team. One is the fact that he’s a complete players’ man. He protects his players, and that’s very important in international cricket because, at times, you can feel lonely or deserted in international cricket when performances don’t go your way. So, Gambhir is going to do that,” he said on Cricbuzz.

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“And number two, he’ll definitely bring a clever tactical angle to this Indian team. Very fierce, intense guy, and always liked playing for the team and did whatever it took to win a game of cricket,” added Karthik.

The white-ball tour of Sri Lanka will be Gambhir's first assignment as India's head coach as the Men in Blue is scheduled to travel to Colombo from Mumbai in a chartered flight on July 22. Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate will travel to Sri Lanka as part of Gambhir's support staff. An official confirmation from the BCCI is awaited, but Nayar and ten Doeschate are due to travel to Colombo for the white-ball series against Sri Lanka. Gambhir has worked with both Nayar and Ten Doeschate during his mentorship stint with KKR this year.