It wasn’t too long ago when Rohit Sharma led India to their 2nd T20 World Cup title in 2024, with Rahul Dravid serving as the head coach. The victory meant The Wall had accomplished his goal (of winning a WC after not being able to do so in 2023). And with that began the hunt for the new coach and this hunt naturally involved the captain’s participation.
Gautam Gambhir emerged as a frontrunner to take over the reins from Dravid in 2024, and eventually did so as well. Now, it has come to light that then captain Rohit Sharma had personally requested GG to join the Indian team as coach despite warnings from several close ones about his wish backfiring on him.
Rohit Sharma ignored warnings about working with Gambhir?
As per news agency PTI, Rohit had approached Gambhir during a training session at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL 2024 and had asked him to join the Indian cricket team as the head coach. Gautam had, at that time, replied that he would surely do so if the Hitman remained the captain. And that it exactly what happened in the months that followed.
“Gauti bhai Indian team mein aa jaao’ (Gauti bhai join the Indian team), and Gambhir in return had apparently said: ‘If you remain captain, I will definitely join’,” a source close to Rohit Sharma told the news agency.
However, Sharma was warned by some that he could face difficulties in adjusting with Gambhir’s style of coaching, given that the culture under Dravid’s tenure had been different. But the warnings were ignored by Rohit.
“You are so used to Rahul Dravid school of man management. This will be a different challenge. Are you up for it?,” the source had asked.
Test retirement controversy
What followed was a whitewash at home against New Zealand followed by the Border-Gavaskar Trophy loss against Australia, which also saw Rohit opting to sit out of the 5th Test due to his poor form. Nearly five months later, just before the England series, Sharma had abruptly announced his decision to retire from the longest format of the game.
The PTI report claims that those close to Rohit Sharma claim that the former captain wanted to play all five Tests vs England. Gambhir had even discussed the potential bowlers the team would be facing in the series. On the other hand, sources close to he selectors claim that Rohit had told them that he would take a call after playing the first two Tests, which wasn’t accepted. When told that he would be dropped, Sharma decided to announce his retirement.
ODI captaincy row
Despite leading India to their second Champions Trophy title in 2025, Rohit was stripped off captaincy in the same year. The baton was passed on to Shubman Gill. As per the PTI report, the decision to replace him as ODI captain completely broke Rohit’s faith and trust in Gambhir and the chief selector Ajit Agarkar.
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