Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers during his meetings with Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir described him as an emotional person and warned that such a coach cannot be a good thing for a team. AB was talking to Indian cricket legend Ravichandran Ashwin in a YouTube video. The video was made after India lost the home series to South Africa 0-2, their second whitewash on home soil in two consecutive years, leaving them in a scenario Indian cricket had not experienced for years: home dominance and the tag of ‘home bullies’ slowly eroding.
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AB de Villiers further said that it has also sparked debate over Gambhir’s future as India head coach, under whom India have lost two Test series at home, one against New Zealand last year, which was their first defeat at home after 12 years. During a chat on Ashwin’s YouTube channel, AB said, “I don’t know how GG is in terms of leadership. I know him as an emotional player, and if it’s the same in the change room, it’s generally not a good thing to have an emotional coach. But that doesn’t mean he is that kind of coach and leader behind the scenes. There is no right or wrong in it. Some players will feel comfortable with a former player. Some players will feel comfortable with a coach who has never played the game before.” Yes, but he has many years of experience in coaching (serious) sports.”
AB said that although he has never played under Proteas coach Shukri Conrad or Indian coach Gambhir, he appreciated their “calm nature” and making decisions based on “stats and intuition”. He said that I have never played under Shukri and I have never been in the Indian dressing room with GG, Morne Morkel and Ryan ten Doeschate. It sounds great on paper, but I don’t know what the dynamics are like behind the scenes. All I can say is that it is different for every player. I love playing under Gary Kirsten, he is a former player and is like Gautam Gambhir. Some players may find confidence and comfort with a former player who is a great player of the game and some additional motivation to make additional contributions to the team and coach.
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He said, “Then there is Shukri Conrad, who has a long track record of coaching domestic teams. He has a lot of experience and is very calm. He generally takes decisions based on data and also follows his conscience. He is not indifferent to certain team selections and works closely with the players to help them progress. But you can do this only when you have a strong group of senior players, including Players like Kagiso Rabada, Temba Bavuma, Aiden Markram are included.”