Former India coach Rahul Dravid recently wrapped up his successful tenure with the Men in Blue following their victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup final, prompting the BCCI to appoint Gautam Gambhir in the hope that he would be able to follow in Dravid's footsteps. However, Gambhir and Dravid are fundamentally two very different players, evident from their playing styles to the way they have run their IPL franchises, leaving some to wonder what has changed in the Indian dressing room since Gambhir's appointment.
Gambhir took over as India's head coach with the T20 and ODI series in Sri Lanka, which featured senior Indian players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant. While the Men in Blue tasted success in the T20 leg of the tournament, they found themselves lacking in the ODI format. One interesting thing about Gambhir's coaching tenure was that for the first time in a long while, we saw many Indian batsmen like Rohit, Suryakumar Yadav, Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal rolling up their sleeves to bowl at crucial junctures, something that had been missing during Dravid's reign.
In a recent interaction, Rishabh Pant has spoken about the coaching styles of Gambhir and Dravid, saying that while Dravid was more balanced, the current Indian coach is more on the aggressive side.
During an interaction with JioCinema, Pant said, “I feel Rahul bhai was very balanced as a human being and as a coach. It could be both good and bad, because in cricket there can be positives. This is upon the individuals whether to focus on the positives and negatives, and it depends on where individuals want to focus.”
“Gauti bhai (Gambhir) is more aggressive, he's very one-sided about the fact that you have to win. But you need to find the right balance and improve. This is the best part of international cricket,” Pant added
