Former India opener Aakash Chopra reflected on Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as the head coach of the Indian team, offering a mixed assessment of his performance.
While speaking to RevSportz, Chopra awarded a “five-star rating” to Gambhir for his work as a white-ball coach.
“Five-star rating to him in white-ball cricket, as India hasn’t really lost a white-ball series in a long time now,” Chopra said.
India won two major white-ball tournaments under Gambhir — the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the Asia Cup 2025.
However, India’s performance in red-ball cricket during Gambhir’s tenure has come under scrutiny, as they were whitewashed twice at home within the span of one year. In a major setback in 2024, India lost to New Zealand 3–0, while South Africa defeated India 2–0 in 2025. Following these defeats, many experts and fans around the world urged the board to replace Gambhir as head coach.
Chopra shared his views on India’s red-ball performance under Gambhir, saying: “In red-ball cricket, the whitewash against New Zealand was also at the start of his tenure, so a benefit of the doubt can be given, as he must have been finding his feet back then. In recent times, Eden Gardens was a disappointment in terms of the pitch we asked for, and it was a bad start, of course. The after-effect was then seen in Guwahati, where the pressure from Kolkata contributed to their failure. Hopefully, we will play on better pitches now.”
The upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 will be the next major assignment for coach Gambhir and his team.
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