It wasn’t too long ago that Gautam Gambhir took an indirect dig at Delhi Capitals co-owner Parth Jindal for suggesting split-coaching for Indian men’s cricket, asking him to ‘stay in his domain’. On Tuesday
(January 6), Gambhir’s former teammate, Harbhajan Singh, said there was ‘nothing wrong’ with the idea.
Split-coaching proposes different coaches for different formats. This ‘split’ between formats became popular as a captaincy thing when England successfully won the 2019 World Cup under Eoin Morgan, who led a team of mostly white-ball specialists who were far from being Test regulars.
In Gambhir’s case, the suggestions have been driven by his failures in the Test format, which are in contrast to his white-ball CV. Overseeing a transition, he has lost more Tests than he has won as the coach since last year, while also becoming the only in Indian history to endure two home series whitewashes.
Harbhajan took a more balanced approach than Jindal, sympathising with Gambhir while suggesting the idea.
“It is not that easy to become a coach of India. To be a coach, you have to travel with the team for a whole year and keep yourself involved in the game. You have to be more engaged because there are multiple team selections, and you also need to focus on match results,” Harbhajan told ANI.
“Gautam Gambhir does not go there to play. When he was playing, he played well. He played very well for India. Everyone needs to be patient. If you feel you need to split the coaching, such as adopting a policy of one white ball and one red ball, then there is no need to do so for now. But over time, if needed, you should definitely do it. There is nothing wrong with that,” he added.
There have already been rumors about the BCCI informally approaching VVS Laxman for the Test coaching role, though the board has denied it publicly. India doesn’t play another Test until August 2026.
