Not long after India pulled off a huge win over New Zealand in the 1st T20I at Nagpur, there was a post from head coach Gautam Gambhir on his X (previously Twitter) account that seemed very vague but very likely to become viral on social media.
Gautam Gambhir has faced criticism quite heavily lately since team India’s performance in Tests and ODIs has been below par. But still, the Men in Blue under the coach have managed to stand firm in the T20 format.
Gambhir’s tweet claims that the whole story about the Indian coach having ‘unlimited authority’ to decide how things are going to happen is a pure myth. His message follows a meeting with Dr. Shashi Tharoor, an Indian columnist and writer who has been very vocal in appreciating the arduous task of the Indian head coach.
How Has India Fared Under Gautam Gambhir?
It is very hard to give a one-liner description of Gautam Gambhir’s period as the head coach of India so far. The main reason is that Indian cricket has been through a massive transition recently which has led to some very significant retirements such as that of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (with Rohit and Kohli quitting two formats of the game).
Nevertheless, India’s performance in Test and ODI formats has suffered a great deal lately. They have lost to countries like New Zealand and South Africa even in home conditions- which had been almost impossible for these teams before.
On the other hand, India’s performance in ODI cricket with Gautam Gambhir as the captain has been poor lately, although the Blues were crowned the champions by winning the ICC Champions Trophy 2025. The team under Shubman Gill lost to Australia in their own backyard and got beaten by New Zealand at home as well.
Therefore, there are some issues that need to be rectified. On the other hand, this tweet from Gautam Gambhir indicates the stress that the head coach of Indian team has to deal with. The Men in Blue are already in the midst of T20 World Cup 2026 preparations that starts on February 7.