“It has been a very honest dressing room” - Gautam Gambhir opens up on toughest job as a head coach

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has revealed that it was the toughest part for him as a coach to bench Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav from the playing XI, adding that both players were aware of the circumstances, as the support staff had open discussions with them.

While Kuldeep Yadav was benched for the whole Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2025 campaign in England, Arshdeep Singh was benched in a lot of limited-overs games, with Harshit Rana getting more preference because of his batting ability. 

“That's probably the toughest part of me as a coach. I think that's the toughest job I have, that sometimes when I know that there is so much of quality sitting on the bench and I know everyone deserves to be part of the playing XI, but ultimately you can only pick XI thinking that which is the best combination to do the job on that particular day,” Gambhir said in an interview with BCCI.TV.

“But for me, the most important thing is the conversation and the communication as well. So the communication needs to be very clear, very honest; sometimes, obviously, those are hard conversations to have. 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 XI,” he added.

Furthermore, Gambhir asserted that his main focus is on having a healthy dressing room environment. The head coach went on to state that his players do understand the heart-to-heart discussions his support staff has with them.

“If you're honest, if you're straightforward, if you know that what you're saying is saying it from the heart and there is nothing beyond that, so I feel that our players do understand that. And it's a communication between a player and a coach, and I think it should stay till then rather than people making a lot of hue and cry and different theories about it,” said Gambhir.

“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 something how we want this dressing room to be like," he concluded.

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