India's record in red-ball and white-ball formats have been contrasting over the last 12 to 14 months. In ODIs and T20Is, the team has performed extremely well, but when it comes to Tests, India have been blanked by New Zealand and South Africa, 3-0 and 2-0 respectively at home. India also lost to Australia 3-1 away from home despite winning the first match of the series in Perth. With these results, India head coach Gautam Gambhir's place seems to be in danger for now in red-ball cricket.
However, it seems that the BCCI doesn't have enough options to replace, as according to a PTI report, someone who matters in the cricket board had informally approached VVS Laxman to check if he would be interested in coaching the red ball team after India's 2-0 loss to South Africa in November this year.
But the report states that Laxman is happy being the 'Head of Cricket' at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Moreover, within the BCCI corridors, many are not yet convinced with Gambhir being the right person to coach the Test team.
Gambhir has strong backing in the BCCI, says report
For the unversed, India have nine Tests remaining in the WTC 2025-27 cycle - two each against Sri Lanka and New Zealand away and five at home against Australia. They will have to win around 7-8 Tests to have any chance of making it to the final.
"Gambhir does have (a) strong backing within the power corridors of Indian cricket and obviously, if India retain the T20 World Cup or at least reach the final, he would be seamlessly continuing with his assignment.
However, it would be interesting if Gambhir continues in Tests too. His advantage being (that there) aren't too many alternate options in red ball format since VVS Laxman isn't interested in coaching senior Test team," a BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
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