More than six years since playing his last competitive game, Gautam Gambhir took over as India’s head coach at the age of 42, the second-youngest Indian after Kapil Dev in the late 1990s to be given the job. Fiercely competitive on the field, and feisty and outspoken off it, Gautam Gambhir takes charge of an Indian side that qualified for the finals of the last World Test Championship and ODI World Cup in 2023, and just won the T20 World Cup in 2024.
Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) mentor and now India coach Gautam Gambhir has received criticism frequently for “not smiling” and always having a “game face on,” and now once again the former India opener, who is well-known for his stern expression, has turned heads with his bold statement. Even after taking over as the role of mentor of the Indian Premier League teams, Gautam Gambhir, who was regarded as an aggressive player during his playing career, continues to think in the same way.
Gautam Gambhir’s career in coaching arena.
Well, he hasn’t coached a domestic or international team previously in List A or first-class cricket, but that’s not unusual for the Indian team. For example, both Ravi Shastri and Anil Kumble did not have prior coaching experience when they took charge in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
Gambhir got the job on the back of a successful stints as mentor of two IPL franchises. Under his guidance, Lucknow Super Giants qualified for the playoffs in their first two IPL seasons, and then he oversaw Kolkata Knight Riders’ run to the title in 2024. So in that regard, Gambhir’s pathway to the India job is extremely different to his predecessor Rahul Dravid, who spent years as head of the National Cricket Academy and coaching India’s age-group and A teams.
It’s true that Gambhir has been involved in a fair share of heated moments – on social media and in person – over a number of issues ranging from cricket to politics. However, he is believed to be someone who goes to great lengths to stick up for those in his team. For example, his altercation with Kohli in IPL 2023 is believed to be a result of him not taking kindly to a verbal spat between Kohli and the LSG fast bowler Naveen Ul Haq.
And in 2017, he had a run-in with the Delhi state coach over the handling of youngsters in the team. Gautam Gambhir has been outspoken against giving an individual excessive limelight in a team game, a philosophy he followed during his mentoring stints at LSG and KKR. While many former cricketers have welcomed this move by India post WT20 triumph.
The BCCI appointed hot-favorite Gautam Gambhir as Rahul Dravid’s replacement and the decision has left fans with plenty of excitement. However till the current BGT series, Gautam Gambhir’s international career as coach has been a journey of lows and highs enjoying success in T20I series and equal failures in ODIs and test series.
In a brutally honest chat, the recently retired IPL coach Gautam Gambhir tells ESPNCricinfo about his ‘two faces’, his on-field confrontations, and the pressure of an IPL price tag, among other things.
IPL 2024 winning mentor and India coach Gautam Gambhir reveals the reason behind his mysterious missing of smile on his face
Former India cricketer and current head coach Gautam Gambhir is known as a batting hero, who top-scored for India in the 2007 T20 World Cup final as well as the 2011 ODI World Cup final. The Men in Blue won both games.
At the same time, Gambhir is also seen as an enigmatic personality – someone who hardly smiles. Right through his playing days, the southpaw was regarded as a resilient cricketer who was hard on himself, sometimes too much. Not much has changed since retirement, as the former Delhi cricketer continues to hold his serious looks although he has been seen smiling a couple of times.
In an interview to ESPNCricinfo in 2018, Gambhir had opened on the reasons behind his serious and extremely determined personality. He had explained:
“Look, I can be both. I can be the quietest person off the field and I can be the most aggressive person on the cricket field. There are these two faces that I have, the reason is completely different. I like being aggressive on the cricket field because I haven’t gotten anything so easily. I had to fight for everything when it comes to my profession.”
The former India batter had claimed that he was snubbed from an early age when it came to cricketing opportunities which, he felt, he deserved. He spoke about not being picked in the U-19 World Cup squad despite having scored heavily and having to work extremely hard to be part of the Ranji Trophy team. Gambhir also opined that he should have been part of India’s 2007 ODI World Cup squad.
“And then, 2007, again I still believe that I should have been part of that World Cup team which went to West Indies, and I missed it, and that was probably the lowest moment of my career. So nothing had come easy to me. I could never afford to let my guard down, and that is probably the only reason I could not smile more and could not enjoy more as well,” he had said.
“A lot of times people have asked me this, that I don’t smile enough, but there’s a lot of history behind that as well. Everyone wants to smile; everyone wants to enjoy as well, but I couldn’t, because I wish I could have got things easily, and I didn’t get it, so that probably was the reason why I had to be aggressive and had to fight every inch to get where I wanted,” Gambhir had added.
The former India batter scored 75 off 54 in the 2007 T20 World Cup final against Pakistan in Johannesburg. He compiled 97 off 122 in the 2011 ODI World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Gautam Gambhir played 58 Tests, 147 ODIs and 37 T20Is for India between 2003 and 2016. He scored 4,154 runs in Tests at an average of 41.95. The southpaw totaled 5,238 runs in one-dayers, averaging 39.68. In T20Is, the Delhi cricketer scored 932 runs at an average of 27.41 and a strike rate of 119.02.