After what Team India went through in the past three months under head coach Gautam Gambhir, having lost two Test match series (against New Zealand and Australia), everyone took a jibe at him and his coaching style. Amid a debatable start to his international coaching career, Gambhir finally found some backing from the T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. After India beat England by seven wickets in the series-opener in Kolkata, SKY praised Gambhir for his leadership.
Team India drew first blood in the five-match T20I series with an emphatic win at the Eden Gardens. While mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy won the Player of the Match award for picking three for 23 in the first innings, rookie opener Abhishek Sharma slammed a brilliant 79 off 34 deliveries, helping India win with 43 balls remaining.
The T20I captain appreciated everyone for playing their roles to perfection but lauded head coach Gambhir for giving a free hand to everyone to play freely and express themselves.
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“The energy after we won the toss set the benchmark. Bowlers had plans executed, and the way we batted was icing on the cake. We did the same in South Africa, Hardik had responsibility to bowl the new ball, so cushion to play the extra spinner. Varun’s preparations are on point, and Arshdeep is taking the extra responsibility.
“There’s a lot of freedom being given by Gauti bhai, we want to play a bit different. The fielding is one area we’ve been working really hard. Let’s take those half chances and make a difference," India’s T20I captain said after the match.
Gautam and the coaching staff chosen by him came under scrutiny after India failed to qualify for the WTC Final 2025 despite leading the points table at least until October last year. While New Zealand whitewashed India across three Tests in the away series, India’s tour of Australia Down Under ended in the hosts beating it 3-1 across five Tests.
Several reports doing rounds on social media claimed that BCCI has given Gambhir-led backroom staff a deadline to improve performance or face repercussions, although none has been confirmed yet.
India rock England at Eden
India won the toss and elected to bowl first in the first T20I at the Eden Gardens. The lone specialist seamer, Arshdeep Singh, began with a double blow in his first two overs before Varun broke into the middle order with twin strikes. Captain Jos Buttler tried saving the sinking ship with a gritty 68, but an all-round bowling show restricted them to 132 in 20 overs.
Indian openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek added 41 for the first wicket before Jofra Archer removed Samson and SKY in the same over; that, however, wasn’t enough for England to breathe relief as Abhishek hammered eight sixes to see India home with seven wickets in hand.
Chennai will host the second match on Saturday (Jan 25).
(With inputs from agencies)