Spin legend backs idea of split coaching for Team India despite Gambhir's vehement opposition: 'Nothing wrong with that'

Spin legend Harbhajan Singh has backed the idea of India having different coaches for different formats in the future. While the suggestion has been met with angry responses from Gautam Gambhir, who has been India’s head coach since July 2024, Harbhajan feels there’s “nothing wrong” with having different coaches for the red-ball and white-ball formats considering how the Indian team has performed over the last 17 months.

The Men in Blue have been successful in the limited-overs formats during Gambhir’s reign as head coach, winning the ICC Champions Trophy as well as the Asia Cup under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav respectively.

The same, however, cannot be said for the Test format, where India have suffered two Test whitewashes at home in the span of a year. They have also surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 1-3 series defeat in Australia during this period and currently face the prospect of missing out on the ICC World Test Championship final for the second consecutive time.

More from First Cricket

ICC to persuade Bangladesh to reverse India travel stance for T20 World Cup amid BCCI-BCB dispute: Report Head puts Australia shoulders above before Smith piles on misery on error-prone England

‘Not that easy to become a coach of India’

‘Bhajji’, however, added that the BCCI did not necessarily have to adopt the measure right away, with India not playing Test cricket until August, but could adopt it later should the situation demand it.

“It is not that easy to become a coach of India. To be a coach, you have to travel with the team for a whole year and keep yourself involved in the game. You have to be more engaged because there are multiple team selections, and you also need to focus on match results. In India, it is our tradition that if the team plays well, everyone is quiet, but as soon as the team plays poorly, we get on top of the coach,” Harbhajan told news agency ANI.

“Gautam Gambhir does not go there to play. When he was playing, he played well. He played very well for India. Everyone needs to be patient. If you feel you need to split the coaching, such as adopting a policy of one white ball and one red ball, then there is no need to do so for now. But over time, if needed, you should definitely do it. There is nothing wrong with that,” he added.

Quick Reads

View All

'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new report

PCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversy

Also Read | Gill calls for India to undergo 15-day camps ahead of Test assignments after recent whitewashes

Shortly after South Africa completed a 2-0 sweep over India with a 408-run victory in Guwahati, Gambhir had attacked an "IPL team owner" for suggesting the Indian team to appoint different coaches for different formats, a move that teams such as England and Pakistan have adopted in the past.

“All the discussions about wickets and I don’t know what else. And people who have got nothing to do with cricket have said things. An IPL team owner wrote about split coaching. So this is a surprising thing. It is very important for people to stay in their domain. Because if we don’t go into someone’s domain, then they also don’t have any right to come into our domain,” Gambhir said during a press conference in Visakhapatnam after India completed a 2-1 ODI series victory over South Africa.