I hope Gautam Gambhir does not see himself as the CEO: Harsha Bhogle

Renowned Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle has offered a piece of advice to the Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir amid achieving a mixed bag of results since taking over as the head coach in July 2024.

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While Gambhir bagged title victories in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and the Asia Cup 2025 campaign, the Indian team suffered whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa in Tests at home. 

"I hope Gautam Gambhir does not see himself as the CEO. He has to see himself as the consultant. The CEO is the captain. I hope he does not see himself as 'I am running this team.' Ok, you (speaking to Shaun Pollock) have been the captain and now you are going to be coach, who runs the team?" Harsha Bhogle said on Cricbuzz.

"That has to be the captain," Shaun Pollock said.

"In T20, is that blurring a little?" Bhogle asked.

"I think it is. I think it's blurring more in franchise cricket, because guys play so many franchise games and come from different parts of the world. Sometimes they drop in two days before the game. That means the leadership is thrown at the coaches. In national teams you get a longer period of time. As captain you have to guard that. I mean you can help him with as many ideas, try and build his confidence. But at the end of the day, when he is out there, he has to make those calls," Pollock explained.

"Who is changing the batting order, when the captain is still in the dugout?" Bhogle asked.

"If the captain is involved, it should come from him," Pollock replied.

Earlier, Gambhir asserted that the batting order from No.3 and No. 8 will be completely flexible with their batting positions in the shortest format of the game. On the other hand, former South African cricketer AB de Villiers agreed with the Indian head coach, but urged him not to cross the fine line.

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"I do agree with him to a certain extent. I've always enjoyed a floating batting lineup in ODIs. But it's a fine line because you can't really play around too much with the players' roles. It's the top three, four to six, and then your tailenders who can hold the bat. It's almost like three segments, and you can really be creative with that. Play with right and left-hand combinations and certain situations of the game," AB de Villiers had said on his YouTube channel.

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