Gambhir Makes Flop Star A Hero

Gautam Gambhir took charge as the coach of Team India in July 2024. His first two assignments were against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In Sri Lanka, India won the T20I series but lost the ODI series. It was a big humiliation for Gambhir as a coach, as India lost an ODI series in Sri Lanka after two decades.

Against Bangladesh, India played a home Test and T20I series. India whitewashed the series by winning all matches, but that is not the achievement for Gambhir as a coach.

It was the resurrection of Sanju Samson as a batter in the international format. Sanju Samson, who is a star in the IPL, often struggles to prove himself in international matches.

He hardly gets a chance to play international cricket and, unfortunately, he failed to capitalize on the chances he got. As a result, he was tagged as an IPL slogger.

This time, he was included in the T20I series and got another opportunity to prove himself. He failed in the first two games, scoring 19 and 10 runs respectively.

Once again, he was low on confidence due to back-to-back disappointing shows. But he came back stronger and scored a century in the third game held in Hyderabad. India recorded its highest-ever T20 total in this game, and Samson was the major contributor.

He revealed that it was the constant backing from coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Surya Kumar Yadav that helped him prove his talent in an important game.

In the past, Samson used to lose his berth after a disappointing performance in a series. But Gambhir showed faith in him and finally unleashed the real prowess of Sanju. Thus, fans on social media call it his first big achievement as a head coach.