Challenging two-year cycle to start for Gautam Gambhir with England tour

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. 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.

The CT win has come like a breath of fresh air and 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.

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 big 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.

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. 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. 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.

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.

He loaths the superstar culture. 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.

In the 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.

Gambhir has some really tough choices to make but he has never been afraid of making bold decisions.