India captain Rohit Sharma on Tuesday said head coach Gautam Gambhir’s style is different from his predecessor Rahul Dravid but insisted he shares a good rapport with the new appointee, and the rest of his fresh set of support staff. Gambhir, a World Cup-winning former opener, took charge of India in July during a white ball tour to Sri Lanka, and will now helm the team in its first Test series under his tutelage against Bangladesh, beginning here from Thursday.
In Gambhir’s first outing as coach, India swept the T20I series against the Islanders 3-0, but lost the ensuing ODI series 0-2. “Obviously, Rahul bhai, Vikram Rathour (former batting coach) and Paras Mhambrey (former bowling coach) were a different team and it is only acceptable that the new support staff will bring different perspective,” Rohit said in the pre-series press conference on Tuesday.
“But the matches that we engaged in (with the new staff) in Sri Lanka, they seemed to be sensible and understanding. They began to learn things pretty quickly within the team,” he added.
Dravid’s tenure ended after India’s T20 World Cup triumph in the West Indies and he will next be seen heading the coaching staff of IPL side Rajasthan Royals. Rathour and Mhambrey were replaced by Abhishek Nayar (assistant coach) and South African Morne Morkel (bowling coach), while former Dutch all-rounder Ryan ten Doeschate also joined as an assistant coach.
While Nayar joining the team was largely a given, Morkel and Doeschate, who worked with Gambhir at the Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL, beat former pacers R Vinayakumar and L Balaji in the race to spots among the India support staff.
Rohit used his long association with Gambhir during the latter’s playing days, and with Abhishek Nayar in the Mumbai dressing room to underline his comfortable working relation with them.
“It’s a new (support) staff for sure, but I have known Gautam Gambhir and Abhishek Nayar long enough. Every support staff has its operating style, and that’s what we were expecting.
“I have worked with different coaches over 17 years of my career, and it’s vital to understand that all of them have a unique perspective (about cricket), and it’s a must that you adjust with them,” said Rohit.
While Rohit has never worked alongside Morkel and Doeschate, the 37-year-old said he has enough knowledge of them from their days as cricketers to strike a comfortable equation.
“I have also played matches against Morne Morkel and Ryan ten Doeschate. I have some close encounters with Morkel, but not so much with Ryan, may be a couple of matches. But that doesn’t matter.
“As of now, there have been no issues or problems as such (with the new set of support staff). We have a great understanding of each other. Good understanding is important, and I have that with them,” he added on his dynamics with the new head coach and his team.
In his first media interaction after taking charge in July, the 42-year-old Gambhir had also rejected apprehensions about his equation with the team’s senior players by citing his familiarity with them during his playing days.
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