Team India Head Coach: Gautam Gambhir’s conditions accepted, second round of interviews for post of India coach on Wednesday

Gautam Gambhir is set to become Team India Head Coach.

The first round of interviews was conducted on Tuesday and the second round would be done on Wednesday. The selection of the new India coach, however, remains an open-and-shut case. Gautam Gambhir has applied for the job and unless things change drastically at the last minute, he will become the new India coach and take charge from July. The official announcement will be made soon.

Gambhir, though, is not the sole applicant. Former India batsman WV Raman has thrown his hat into the ring. It is learnt that Raman’s presentation during Tuesday’s interview impressed the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) that comprises Ashok Malhotra, Jatin Paranjape and Sulakshana Naik. A foreign coach, too, has applied for the job and will be interviewed on Wednesday. Raman was India women’s head coach from December 2018 to May 2021.

The interviews were conducted online, and transition was in focus. The new coach’s tenure will be from July 1 to December 31, 2027 and the Indian team is expected to undergo transition during that period, especially in the shorter formats. According to sources, both Gambhir and Raman were asked about their plans to handle transition. They were asked about workload management as well and the support staff they intend to pick. Split captaincy, too, was a subject of discussion.

All said and done, Gambhir’s appointment looks a formality. The two-time World Cup winner, who made a telling impact as Kolkata Knight Riders mentor and guided the franchise to the IPL title this term, was informally sounded out by the BCCI to start with. Gambhir, it is learnt, set certain conditions before he applied for the job. There’s a school of thought that without the assurance, he wouldn’t have done so.

Earlier this month, at an event in Abu Dhabi, Gambhir had publicly expressed his desire to coach the Indian team. “Look, I would love to coach the Indian team,” he said while talking to a group of students. “There’s no bigger honour. There’s no bigger honour than coaching your national team. You are representing 140 crore Indians, and more across the globe as well. And when you represent India, how can it get bigger than that?”

The current Indian team head coach Rahul Dravid’s term ends at the end of the ongoing T20 World Cup. He didn’t re-apply despite India captain Rohit Sharma trying to convince him to stay. VVS Laxman, the Head of Cricket at the National Cricket Academy, too, was reluctant to take up the job. Gambhir is a winner, but his biggest challenge would be to handle the big egos in the dressing room. The KKR players lauded his man-management skills. Managing the Indian team, however, is a different ball game.

In exclusive arrangement with RevSportz