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Gautam Gambhir says leaving out players like Arshdeep and Kuldeep is the toughest part of coaching, stressing that clear, honest, and private communication is key.
Harshit Rana (left) and Gautam Gambhir (PTI Photo)
Indian men’s head coach Gautam Gambhir has admitted that dropping players like Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav from the team is the ‘toughest’ part of the job for him. He said that the ‘most important’ thing for him in such situations is clear and honest communication with the player, which should also be private.
A hallmark of Gambhir’s coaching has been a preference for all-rounders over specialists across formats. Hence, under him, the likes of Harshit Rana and Nitish Reddy have got big backing, while Arshdeep (the highest wicket taker for the country in T20Is) and Kuldeep (the best white-ball spinner in the country) have seen their chances get more limited than before.
“Look, that’s probably the toughest part for me as a coach,” Gambhir said in an interview with the BCCI. “I think that’s the toughest job I have, that sometimes when I know that there is so much quality sitting on the bench and I know everyone deserves to be part of the playing 11, but ultimately you can only pick 11, thinking about which is the best combination that can do the job on that particular day,” he added.
“But for me, the most important thing is the conversation and the communication as well. The communication needs to be very clear, very honest. Sometimes, obviously, those are hard conversations. If you tell someone that he’s not playing, this is probably the toughest conversation for a coach and a player as well, because I know that the player would get upset when he deserves to be part of the playing 11.”
Some, including a few former cricketers, have even termed it favoritism and bias towards a section of players. Rana, whose performances with the team have been good since his debut in 2024, has been particularly targetted.
“But if you’re honest, if you’re straightforward, if you know that what you’re saying is from the heart and there is nothing beyond that, I feel that some players do understand that. It’s a communication between a player and a coach, and I think it should stay there, rather than people making a lot of hue and cry and different theories about it. And that is something which I think this group and the support staff have done brilliantly, because I think it has been a very transparent dressing room. It has been a very honest dressing room. And that is how we want this dressing room to be,” Gambhir added.
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
A team of reporters, writers and editors brings you news, analyses, features, live scores, results, stats and everything that’s cricket from all over the globe. Follow @cricketnext
November 10, 2025, 17:32 IST
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