While BCCI announced Gautam Gambhir as the India head coach earlier this week, the Indian cricket board is yet to offiical announce if the earier support will continue or a new team would be brought in. However, some reports have suggested that Gambhir had requested BCCI to appoint R Vinay Kumar as bowling coach and Johnty Rhodes as the fielding, both of whom the cricket board is reported to have said no to.
A latest report by Cricbuzz states that Gambhir has urged BCCI to consider former South African pacer Morne Morkel for the bowling coach role. Moreover, the report states that BCCI has also held talks with the South African, who was the bowling coach of Pakistan until last year's ODI World Cup.
However, some reports have suggested that BCCI is insistent on having a full Indian coaching setup which has been the trend for the last 7 years first under Ravi Shastri and then Rahul Dravid. This is also being cited as the reason why BCCI wasn't keen on having Johnty Rhodes as the fielding coach.
Notably, Gambhir has had a good working relationship with Morkel, first as teammates and then as fellow coaches. Gambhir also rated Morkel highly as a bowler and had called him the ‘fiercest’ bowler he ever faced.
In an interaction in 2017, Gambhir said, “Morne Morkel is the fiercest bowler I have ever faced. That’s why we got him in KKR as well. I thought he was the toughest bowler I faced. Even when he was playing for Delhi. Every time I faced him, I wish we had him in our team. And the moment he was released, I said Morne Morkel,”
Morkel first played for Kolkata Knight Riders during Gambhir's captaincy and was later inducted as the bowling coach of Lucknow Super Giants after Gambhir assumed the role of team's mentor. Morkel continues to be the bowling coach for LSG while Gambhir later went to mentor KKR in 2024 IPL season.
The cricbuzz report suggests that Gambhir also wants Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate in his support staff. However, BCCI is reportedly looking to retain T Dilip from the Dravid support staff while Zaheer Khan is being looked as the potential option for bowling coach.
