You've got to give Gambhir some slack: Dinesh Karthik

Former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik feels that the present Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir is under pressure in his early days due to recent negative results. Karthik talked about how the head coach can settle the situation. 

Gautam Gambhir, the former national teammate of Dinesh Karthik, has taken the coaching challenge of the Indian team after their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 trophy win under the coaching of Rahul Dravid. 

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It's never easy to fill those shoes: Dinesh Karthik on coach Rahul Dravid replacement

Although the Gambhir-coaching Indian team won the home Test series against Bangladesh comfortably by 2-0 after a successful T20I series whitewash (3-0) and losing an ODI series in the Sri Lanka tour (2-0), they faced a historic whitewash defeat in the home Test against New Zealand (by 3-0) and also lost the five-match Test series Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 in Australia by 3-1. The team selections and batters’ performances in the recent Test series have been criticised heavily.

Recently, Dinesh Karthik talked about Gambhir’s coaching. He told Cricbuzz, "The Bangladesh series was a success, and I think post that, things have gone downhill for him in Tests."

While the early situation is very tough for Gambhir and Team India, Karthik believes that the former Indian opener needs some time, as it was never easy to replace the successful coach Rahul Dravid. 

Karthik said, "You've got to give Gambhir some slack. He has come in at a very tough time post the successful regime of Rahul Dravid. It's never easy to fill those shoes.” 

Karthik also pointed out that while coach Gambhir had a rough start in the ODI and Test formats, the ODI format was too small, as India played only three ODIs in 2024. Meanwhile, under his coaching, Team India impressed in the T20I format, both against the hosts Sri Lanka and the visitors Bangladesh. Karthik praises Gambhir for guiding the youngsters in the shorter format.

The pressure is mounting

Talking about Gambhir’s impact as the coach, Karthik feels that the correlation between the coach's vision and the players' mindset is important to build up a strong team. While Karthik also understands the limited opportunities for a coach during a match, he needs to work in the proper manner to make the dressing room positive. 

Karthik finished with, "The pressure is mounting. All he can do is give them freedom, give them the security they want in the dressing room, and try to keep a very nice and safe even sort of place there. But when the player walks out, he has to find a way to counter his demons and the opposition's questions."