Rahul Dravid was replaced as the Indian team’s head coach by Gautam Gambhir, and the veteran coach is said to have demanded a specific coaching arrangement from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). According to reports, he first asked for management to hire Abhishek Nayar and Morne Morkel as the batting and bowling coaches, respectively.
Six of his demands, including the one listed above, have reportedly been quashed by BCCI. Remarkably, in the initial round of talks, Gambhir had already recommended Vinay Kumar and Laximipathy Balaji as the bowling coaches, but the management had denied the request. Additionally, the former opener for India put forth the ideas of hiring Jonty Rhodes and Ryan ten Doeschate as fielding coaches, but they were ultimately rejected.
Not to be forgotten is that Vinay and Balaji were players for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the highly competitive Indian Premier League (IPL) under Gautam Gambhir.
Nayar has the potential to overcome the rumours and establish himself as a valuable member of the Indian coaching team. In the IPL, he fits the description of a talent scout and assistant coach for KKR, having only played three One-Day Internationals for his country and rising to the top of the coaching ranks. The comeback of players like Dinesh Karthik and Shreyas Iyer is attributed to him. Furthermore, Rinku Singh is credited to him for having recognised and mentored the budding artist.
Head coaches’ options were taken into consideration beforehand.
The former India coaches have always had a voice and their preferences for coaching staff members have been respected, despite the recent developments surrounding Gautam Gambhir’s demands. For example, when it came to the coaching staff, Ravi Shastri had different priorities from the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC), which included VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, and Sachin Tendulkar. Dravid’s choices were Paras Mhambrey, the current bowling and fielding coach of India, and T Dilip.