Focus shifts to coach Gautam Gambhir’s approach as he begins partnership with captain Suryakumar Yadav

As the whole attention is now firmly on Paris Olympics, in the hilly terrains of Kandy, a new era is on the horizon for Indian cricket in a sport that will be at the Games in four years.

Almost a month after winning the T20 World Cup, and having already done and dusted a victorious tour of Zimbabwe, beginning with the first T20I on Saturday, India will take baby steps under a new captain and head coach.

The series against Zimbabwe earlier this month provided ample indications as to where this team is headed, at least from the selectors’ point of view. The majority of the personnel who are in Pallekele are the same as the touring party in Harare, but this is now Suryakumar Yadav’s team. The new captain unites with head coach Gautam Gambhir, who was amongst the earliest to forecast Surya’s greatness in the format during their stint together at Kolkata Knight Riders.

“It is a very special bond between us,” Suryakumar said about his bonding with Gambhir. “Of course, we haven’t spoken a lot in the last three days, but just looking at my body language he knows what I want. And I know what he wants to say. I’m really excited about the journey ahead. Let’s see what happens,” Suryakumar said.

The last four words definitely reflect where this team stands. They are walking into a bit of unknown as the Surya captaincy still remains untested. In 2015, when he was made Mumbai captain, he quit mid-way through the season after several of his teammates flagged his style of captaincy. But last year, he led India against Australia and it was the feedback from those players that worked in favour of Surya to pip Hardik Pandya for the captaincy this time.

Gambhir, on the other hand, comes fresh after winning an IPL title. But coaching an international side comes with its own set of challenges and he will have to work with a bigger pool of players across all formats. Given his man-management skills which are spoken highly off, it shouldn’t be a problem, but this still remains untested waters for Gambhir. Unlike his predecessor Rahul Dravid, who came through the India U-19 and A set-up, the question is how will Gambhir handle the big jump.

Pallekele: India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav and Sri Lanka’s captain Charith Asalanka unveil the T20I cricket series trophy, in Pallekele, Friday, July 26, 2024. (PTI Photo/Kunal Patil)

All things point out that India has pressed for a transition in white-ball cricket by starting with the T20I side. Though having different players for different formats has been a subject of discussion, Gambhir’s entry puts a full-stop to those. It is the reason why even India have put their faith in Shubman Gill to crack the code in T20s by handing him the vice-captaincy and overlooking the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Ruturaj Gaikwad.

With Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja retiring from the T20s, Gambhir gets a chance to build the white-ball squad from the T20 set-up. With just 6 ODIs remaining ahead of the Champions Trophy in February-March, India will persist with the trio in ODIs. But post that event, The Indian Express understands that the transition button will be pressed in ODIs as well, but the T20s will be used to gauge how the youngsters have progressed. The plan is to gradually phase out the seniors one by one rather than being thin on experience at one go.

During the big transition that happened when MS Dhoni took charge as captain, India had the luxury to groom the youngsters in the ODIs before they made it to the Test side. A similar approach is what the current bunch of selectors and Gambhir are understood to be focussing on as the transition would then be seamless. There are a few tough calls that need to be taken with the ODI side, but the India team management will resist those and check how the young crop goes about in T20s.

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At the moment, India’s focus firmly remains on continuing the momentum they have gained in the T20s. They are now playing a brand of aggressive cricket that most attacks will struggle to stop and have an attack that can win games on its own. During his stint with KKR, Gambhir’s methods were along similar lines, if not better. That in Surya, Gambhir has a captain, who too believes in a similar style of play means, there are more reasons to be excited.

“As a captain, Rohit has shown the pathway as to how to play T20s and win a tournament. It is what I learnt from him and I want to take this train forward. Only the engine has been changed, but the train remains the same. So the brand of cricket remains the same. What I’ve been doing remains the same. It is just an added responsibility. It is good, I can now walk the talk,” Suryakumar said.

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