India coach Gautam Gambhir is on cloud nine these days. And why wouldn’t he be? His team only days ago won the T20 World Cup. Like everyone else, former India captain Sourav Ganguly is pleased, but he still thinks there is a lot more to be done. Winning the T20 World Cup is not going to be a panacea.
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And he has hit the nail on the head. Gambhir has struggled in Tests. During his tenure, India have been whitewashed at home twice, in 2024 by New Zealand, in 2025 by South Africa. The previous instance when they were whitewashed at home transpired way back in 1999-2000. In addition, Gambhir also saw India lose 3-1 on their tour of Australia in 2024-25. While Ganguly is full of praise for Gambhir, he demands more.
“Gautam is a very good coach. If you remember, I said on your platform ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy that you need to give the man some time. You can show him the clip when he comes to your conclave. As a white-ball coach, he is very good, especially in these conditions. He has a very good team and is a very good coach. In the red ball, he needs to get better,” Moneycontrol quoted Ganguly as saying.
Ganguly’s pearls of wisdom for Gambhir
Of late, India have been accused of making too spin-friendly pitches to take the opposition teams back. However, their tactics have backfired as suggested by their losses against New Zealand and South Africa. Ganguly, who has been vocal about this subject in the past too, has once again reiterated what he thinks of the matter, giving Gambhir an important piece of advice in the process.
“And the way to do it is to think less about the wicket. He needs to get the wicket out of his system. Take the England series [which India drew 2-2]. He couldn’t do anything about the wicket, and you can see the results. He doesn’t need to play on turners at home. Good wickets will produce good results,” he said.
The Prince of Kolkata also made it clear that India’s Tour of South Africa early next year would be a big challenge for Gambhir.
“Also, his real test in white ball is going to be in South Africa in 2027. Conditions there will test him, but I am confident he will get it right with the team he has,” Ganguly said.
