• Source:JND
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IND vs ENG: Gautam Gambhir, who is the head coach of the Indian cricket team, is all set to take up a new role as he will be traveling with the India A team before the Test series against England later this year. He will become the first-ever head coach to fly with an A team for an overseas series. He wants to get acclimatized to the conditions quickly and also identifies the upcoming talent in the longest format.

Gautam Gambhir wants to travel with Team India A

After the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 ended, all the Indian players have now joined their respective IPL teams for the upcoming season. Usually, all the India A and U-19 teams are guided by the NCA staff as ex-India cricketers like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman used to earlier. But Gambhir wants to end this trend and has told the board about the same.

Both Rahul Dravid and Ravi Shastri, who are the ex-coaches, never flew with the India-A squad. This decision makes Gambhir unique. But there is no clarity as to what his role would be whether he would be accompanying the team as a mentor, or coach or would just observe them.

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A BCCI source did reveal that Gambhir had talked about this with the board after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia.

"Gambhir has been in talks with the board. He wants to travel with the India A team to get a clearer picture of the talent pool," the source added.

Gautam Gambhir's vision for T20I and ODI teams

Gambhir's effect in selecting the Indian squad for the recently concluded mega-event was quite visible as it led to India lifting the title as he came in support of a few wild-card players, who did play a huge role. And he will now play an even bigger role in strengthening the squad.

He has been in favor of having a separate T20I team, which would be selected only based on their current form, instead of selecting players both for the 50-over format and the shortest format. He has opined that having separate teams would give more clarity on making white-ball strategies.

The Men in Blue would be playing 24 ODIs ahead of the 2027 ODI World Cup and Gambhir wants to build the core teams quickly. There is also no clarity as to whether Rohit Sharma would lead the team from the front during the mega-event.

Ahead of the 2026 T20 World CUP, Which would be held in India and Sri Lanka, Gambhir had reckoned that the upcoming season of IPL would play a huge role in identifying the best T20 players.