BCCI informally approached VVS Laxman for red-ball role after Gambhir’s South Africa disaster: Report

The BCCI had informally explored the idea of bringing VVS Laxman back into the Indian team setup as the red-ball coach following India’s poor Test performance against South Africa, according to a PTI report.

While Gautam Gambhir has enjoyed success as India’s white-ball coach, his record in Test cricket has come under scrutiny after a series of disappointing results, especially following the recent whitewash against the Proteas in their own backyard.

Gambhir has won both ICC and ACC titles in white-ball formats since taking over from Rahul Dravid in 2024, but India’s struggles in Test cricket have raised concerns. India suffered their first home Test series defeat in a long time under Gambhir’s coaching, which came against New Zealand last year. The Kiwis had never won a Test series in India before and secured their first-ever series victory with a clean sweep.

The team is currently in seventh position in the 2025-27 ICC World Test Championship standings, and the recent home series loss to South Africa proved to be a major setback in their desire to qualify for another WTC final.

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After that defeat, a senior figure in the BCCI informally approached VVS Laxman to check if he would be interested in taking charge of the red-ball team, news agency PTI reported. However, the former India batter is understood to be happy in his current role as Head of Cricket at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru and is not keen on coaching the senior Test side.

Gambhir’s contract could be revisited after T20 World Cup

While Gambhir’s contract with BCCI runs until the end of the 2027 ODI World Cup, there is every possibility that it could be revisited, depending upon India’s performance in the T20 World Cup, which begins in five weeks’ time.

It is understood that in the BCCI corridors, the jury is still out on whether Gambhir is the right person to remain at helm of the red ball team for remaining nine Tests of the World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle.

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Having drawn 2-2 in a five-Test away series in England, India have a couple of overseas assignments comprising two Tests each against Sri Lanka in August 2026, and a tour of New Zealand in October, before hosting Australia for a five-Test affair in January-February 2027.

“Gambhir does have (a) strong backing within the power corridors of Indian cricket and obviously, if India retain the T20 World Cup or at least reach the final, he would be seamlessly continuing with his assignment. However, it would be interesting if Gambhir continues in Tests too,” a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

“His advantage being (that there) aren’t too many alternate options in red ball format since VVS Laxman isn’t interested in coaching senior Test team,” the source added.

The Indian dressing room, nowadays, is a confused arena with a lot of players not exactly feeling secured in the Gambhir regime unlike the Rahul Dravid era, when roles were defined.

The players during Dravid’s three years’ tenure also got a long rope to prove their mettle.

Shubman Gill's exclusion from the T20 World Cup squad had Gambhir’s footprints written all over it and it has certainly made a lot of players believe that if Indian cricket’s next poster boy could be dumped by the wayside, the next omission number could have anyone’s name written on it.

The BCCI always bides time when it comes to taking policy decisions and if one looks at the calendar, after T20 World Cup, there will be two months of Indian Premier League.

People who have the last word in the BCCI will have enough time to take an informed call about split coaching or having a single coach across formats, after analysing India’s performance at the global meet.

Going forward, the next two months will be very interesting for ‘Guru Gambhir’ even if he has his backers in the BCCI.

(With PTI inputs)