India and England are gearing up for the five-match T20I series which is set to start from January 22. The series will be crucial for Gautam Gambhir, who has had a tough start to his stint as India’s head coach. Gautam Gambhir took over the head coach mantle from Rahul Dravid after India won the T20 World Cup 2024 title.
Gambhir’s appointment as India’s head coach came on the heels of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)’s title triumph in IPL 2024. It was under Gambhir’s mentorship KKR ended up winning the IPL 2024 title after a drought of 10 years.
Gautam Gambhir is an outstanding leader: Brendon McCullum
The expectations were rife that Gambhir will fill in the void left by Rahul Dravid, but things didn’t unfold the way he wanted. India suffered an ODI series defeat against Sri Lanka. It didn’t end their, things worsened as New Zealand landed a 3-0 whitewash against India. Notably it was the first Test series loss for India on home soil since 2012/2013. Australia did the rest by bulldozing India 3-1 in the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series. This ended India’s dominance in Australia as it was their first defeat in Australia in Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the last 10 years. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy fiasco came as a big setback for Rohit Sharma-led India as it cost them the coveted spot in World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-2025.
India’s third series defeat in Gambhir brought the former India opener under strict scanner.
Meanwhile, England head coach Brendon McCullum has come to Gambhir’s defense ahead of India’s T20I series against England. During pre-match press conference, McCullum said that it will be tool early to put Gambhir in a spot as he has just started.
“Gautam Gambhir is an outstanding leader. For India, he is just starting as head coach,” McCullum said in the pre-match press conference.
ollowing his defense of Gambhir, McCullum talked about the upcoming T20I series between India and England. The former New Zealand captain heaped praise on Team India and launched stern warning to host about Three Lions’ powerful batting line-up. He said that England batting line-up is as powerful as any in world cricket.
“India are a very good side. But our batting line-up is as powerful as any in world cricket. We will play a very watchable style of cricket,” McCullum concluded.
India’s T20I squad vs England:
Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Sanju Samson, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Nitish Reddy, Mohd Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Harisht Rana, Dhruv Jurel, Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakrabarthy and Washington Sundar.
England T20I Squad vs India:
Jos Buttler (c), Rehan Ahmed, Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Jamie Overton, Jamie Smith, Liam Livingstone, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Phil Salt, Mark Wood

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