England coach Brendon McCullum on Monday described his Indian counterpart Gautam Gambhir as a “strong leader of men”, backing him to achieve success with the national team in near future. Gambhir, who took over as India’s head coach across formats after India’s title winning campaign in the T20 World Cup last year, has faced intense scrutiny after the team’s dismal outings against New Zealand and Australia. But the former New Zealand captain McCullum has backed his former KKR teammate to come good in his role.
“What I will say about Gautam Gambhir is that I’ve worked with him before. He’s an outstanding leader. He’s a really strong leader of men, and in the time that he’s had in any sort of leadership positions he’s held previously, he’s been able to excel,” McCullum told reporters here.
“He’s only just sort of got underway with this team, but I have no doubt that he’ll get the best out of the talent that he’s got. And then we’ve (England) got to find a way to be able to counter that with our own style,” the former New Zealand swashbuckler added.
India suffered an unprecedented 0-3 whitewash against the Kiwis at home and then lost to Australia 1-3 away, which dashed their hopes of qualifying for a third straight World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Gambhir’s tenure got off to a rocky start as India lost a bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years in last August.
Under Gambhir, India, though, won against Bangladesh at home.
Since taking over the reigns, Gambhir has been expressing strong opposition to the Indian’s star culture, eventually forcing the BCCI to crack the whip by formulating a 10-point guidelines.
But many have also criticised Gambhir’s coaching style after the team lost six of 10 Tests and a bilateral ODI series against Sri Lanka under him.
On the topic of coaching styles and philosophies, McCullum said, “I really don’t know… Sometimes I had enough, like, if coach is the right word, to be honest. It’s sort of, I think everyone does things really differently, and everyone’s approaches are very unique.” McCullum, who is in the country with the England team for the upcoming limited-overs series against India, believes the best way to go about the job is by creating a “happy environment” for players to excel.
“You know, from how I try and operate, I think it’s probably less of a coach and more about trying to make sure that the environment is a happy and enjoyable one, where you guys feel as if they can push their talents and push themselves towards uncomfortable situations, knowing that there’s still going to be that support and care there afterwards and be encouraged to go again go towards those.
“Other coaches are very different. They like to run things in a quite structured, quite technical way. Other coaches are probably a bit more regimented in how they go about things, but I guess it’s fairly different,” McCullum said.
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