The pleas and ultimatums to sack India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir from the position for red-ball cricket have grown louder since India’s humiliating whitewash by the South Africans on their home soil after a whopping 25 years. India have also gone down to the sixth position in the WTC cycle, the worst under any former coach.
The buzz around the sacking of Gautam Gambhir from the role of Indian head coach grew louder with time, as India’s place in the WTC Cycle looked to be getting away from the grips of Gautam Gambhir continuing as the red-ball coach for India.
India are currently placed sixth in the World Test Championship points table and have already lost 4 matches out of the 9 matches they have played in this cycle. If India loses further matches, it will be very tough for them to make it to the top two positions.
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Gautam Gambhir’s poor stint in red-ball cricket continues
Gambhir took the reins of the Indian team from head coach Rahul Dravid following his retirement after the T20 World Cup triumph in 2024. Almost two years passed by, and Gambhir could not yet evolve as the ideal red-ball coach for India.
Under Gambhir’s era, India won the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy within 6 months of his appointment and has emerged as an invincible side in T20s. But what about the longest format of the game?
Starting off with a humiliating 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand at home, it ended India’s long-standing winning streak at home. Then the Men with baggy blue lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to the Aussies for the first time since 2018.
Gambhir’s Test antics snubbed India of a third consecutive entry into the WTC Finals of 2025. Though the England tour saw some positives, Gambhir was yet criticized for his controversial moves, and one of them was the constant workload management of ace pacer Jasprit Bumrah.
Following a 2-2 draw in England and a 2-0 win against the West Indies at home, Gambhir got another bashing from the WTC defending champions, South Africa. After the South Africa whitewash, Gambhir received threats and was exposed to hooting and public shaming.
Gautam Gambhir will remain India’s coach until the 2027 World Cup
The Indian crowd has not been this cruel to any Indian coach or even any Indian player before, despite their weakest of patches, but this time it was surely something very different.
Many claims were made for the sacking of Gambhir as India’s red-ball coach and the appointment of some other coach in the format, while Gambhir continues with limited-overs cricket. The idea of split coaching, however, did not go well with the BCCI.
The narrative from BCCI’s end, as reported by Dainik Jagran reporter Abhishek Tripathi, seems like no changes are going to happen now. The idea seems good and effective, but Gautam Gambhir will stay until the 2027 ODI World Cup.
लाल गेंद और सफेद गेंद के अलग अलग कोच का आइडिया बढ़िया है। हालांकि 2027 विश्व कप तक गौतम गंभीर ही भारतीय टीम के कोच रहेंगे। फिलहाल कोई बदलाव नहीं होने जा रहा है।#IndianCricket
— Abhishek Tripathi / अभिषेक त्रिपाठी (@abhishereporter) December 29, 2025
Will Gambhir and co. manage to defend the ICC T20 World Cup title?
Gautam Gambhir has coached India and led the unbeaten streak in the bilateral T20I series. However, his biggest challenge would be to continue the run in the T20 World Cup, because once the knockouts come, chances would not be repeated.
The Indian team, for the first time in over the last decade and a half, will be playing an ICC tournament without their two veterans, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Though the bowling deck remains the same from the World Cup-winning squad of 2024, batters will have to do a consistent job at the top.
India are the hosts as well as the defending champions of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, and hence, a lot will be expected from the players as well as the national coach.
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