Did BCCI informally look at Gautam Gambhir's red ball replacement after South Africa whitewash?

Jaipur: Gautam Gambhir's record as India's white ball coach has been pretty impressive with an ICC and ACC trophy in each of the two formats but with 10 Test defeats against SENA countries, the same cannot be said when it comes to Test cricket.

It is understood that right after India's abject surrender against South Africa in the two-Test series at home last month, someone who matters in the cricket board had once again informally approached VVS Laxman to check if he would be interested in coaching the red ball team.

However, it is learnt that the legendary batter of yesteryears is happy being the 'Head of Cricket' at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

While Gambhir's contract with BCCI runs until the end of the 2027 ODI World Cup, there is every possibility that it could be revisited, depending upon India's performance in the T20 World Cup which begins in five weeks' time.

It is understood that in the BCCI corridors, the jury is still out on whether Gambhir is the right person to remain at helm of the red ball team for remaining nine Tests of the World Test Championship 2025-27 cycle.

Having drawn 2-2 in a five-Test away series in England, India have a couple of overseas assignments comprising two Tests each against Sri Lanka in August 2026, and a tour of New Zealand in October, before hosting Australia for a five-Test affair in January-February 2027.

"Gambhir does have (a) strong backing within the power corridors of Indian cricket and obviously, if India retain the T20 World Cup or at least reach the final, he would be seamlessly continuing with his assignment. However, it would be interesting if Gambhir continues in Tests too," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.

"His advantage being (that there) aren't too many alternate options in red ball format since VVS Laxman isn't interested in coaching senior Test team," the source added.

The Indian dressing room, nowadays, is a confused arena with a lot of players not exactly feeling secured in the Gambhir regime unlike the Rahul Dravid era, when roles were defined.

The players during Dravid's three years' tenure also got a long rope to prove their mettle.

Shubman Gill's exclusion from the T20 World Cup squad had Gambhir's footprints written all over it and it has certainly made a lot of players believe that if Indian cricket's next poster boy could be dumped by the wayside, the next omission number could have anyone's name written on it.

The BCCI always bides time when it comes to taking policy decisions and if one looks at the calendar, after T20 World Cup, there will be two months of Indian Premier League.

People who have the last word in the BCCI will have enough time to take an informed call about split coaching or having a single coach across formats, after analysing India's performance at the global meet.

Going forward, the next two months will be very interesting for 'Guru Gambhir' even if he has his backers in the BCCI.