If you judged Gautam Gambhir purely through the lens of India’s Test results, you might assume his stint is spiralling. India have just endured a brutal 408-run defeat to South Africa in Guwahati, slipped to a 2-0 home series loss, and the calls for a separate red-ball coach have grown louder than ever. Yet Gambhir’s white-ball track record tells an entirely different tale. This is the same man who has already guided India to the 2025 Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup, while pushing the team towards a far more adventurous limited-overs identity. That is the version of “GG” that Ravichandran Ashwin chose to spotlight during a recent YouTube conversation with AB de Villiers. What began as a question on Gambhir soon turned into Ashwin’s endorsement of India’s evolving T20 blueprint.
Ashwin did not hold back while evaluating Gambhir’s impact. “I think GG, the white-ball coach, has already left a bit of a stamp,” he remarked, a sentence that takes on extra significance given the current climate. Gambhir, in Ashwin’s view, has broken old hierarchies in T20 cricket and prioritised bolder, more proactive cricketers. The former KKR captain seems to be reshaping India’s limited-overs personality with the same intensity he once brought to franchise dressing rooms. Ashwin then widened the lens, crediting the IPL for fuelling this shift. “That is a lot of credit to the IPL… it’s thrown up some stunning white-ball cricketers for India,” he said. For Gambhir, the IPL isn’t just a tournament; it has been the backbone of his coaching journey from Lucknow to KKR and now to a national side full of franchise-hardened talent. And for Ashwin, one name symbolises this pipeline perfectly: Abhishek Sharma. “That’s one cricketer I would love to watch out for again in the T20 format. His exploits around the format will dictate where India go in the T20 World Cup,” Ashwin noted, highlighting Abhishek as a key link between domestic innovation and international ambition. The discussion then shifted towards the philosophy behind India’s new direction. Ashwin emphasised the value of unrestrained batting, something he himself yearned for during his time in T20 internationals. “A fearless brand of cricket which we always wanted to happen,” he said, pleased that the shift has finally arrived after his retirement. Ashwin also touched upon the delicate equilibrium every modern T20 side needs: controlled aggression. With Suryakumar Yadav leading the pack, he believes India have a team capable of intimidating any opposition. There will be flaws, he admitted, but with Bumrah anchoring the defensive bowling and a well-rounded squad around him, India appear well set. Amid the noise surrounding India’s Test decline, Ashwin has essentially split Gambhir’s coaching tenure into two contrasting chapters. One is under heavy scrutiny after the Guwahati collapse. The other already boasts a Champions Trophy, an Asia Cup, an elite T20 captain, the world’s premier death bowler, and a fearless left-handed opener redefining the top order. And that, Ashwin suggests, is the version of Gambhir that has already carved a clear imprint on Indian cricket.
