Gautam Gambhir urges players in form to compete across all formats

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir, now the Indian team's Head Coach, has emphasized the importance of players participating in all formats of the game. Gambhir's appointment follows Rahul Dravid's tenure, which ended with India winning the T20 World Cup on June 29. Unlike Dravid, Gambhir's coaching experience comes from his role as a mentor for IPL teams, most notably leading the Kolkata Knight Riders to a championship in IPL 2024.

Gambhir's contract as Head Coach runs until December 31, 2027, with his first assignment being India's white-ball tour to Sri Lanka in July-August.

In an interview with Star Sports, Gambhir shared his views on player management and format selection, advocating for cricketers capable of excelling across all formats.

“I'm a very strong believer in one thing, if you're good, you should be playing all the three formats. I've never been a big believer in injury management, you get injured, you go get recovered. As simple as it gets. When you're playing international cricket, and you're good enough, you ask any of the top players, they want to play all the three formats,” Gambhir said.

Gambhir's approach prioritizes consistent play over workload management. He believes that players should recover from injuries and continue to play all formats, rather than dropping one format to manage workload.

“Injuries are part of a sportsman's life. And if you're playing all three formats, you get injured, you go back, get recovered, but you should be playing all three formats. I am not a big believer in identifying people that, we're going to keep him for test matches or other formats. We're going to manage his injury and workload and stuff,” he added. Professional cricketers, you've got a very small span when you're playing for your country, and you want to play as much as you can. And when you're in very good form, go ahead and play all the three formats,” he further added.

Gambhir also addressed the issue of player labelling, stating that no cricketer should be tagged to just one format and should aim to represent the nation in all formats of the game.

“They don't want to stay, and they don't want to be labelled as red ball bowlers or white ball bowlers,” he concluded.