Guru Gautam as coach: A leap into the unknown

India is unique in many ways. Indian cricket, more so. Many greats have had many opinions about coaches in cricket. Some look at them as father figures, some as friends (Sachin Tendulkar was asked by Gary Kirsten what he wanted from him as a coach and he said he wanted a friend) while others look at a coach as a mode of transport which helps players reach the ground.

Whatever one thinks, no country in the world creates the level of drama and anticipation with a plethora of stories about the appointment of a coach, more than India. Exclusive stories get written more than the usual number. Sources get treated like demigods and the chatter becomes more off field than on field.

Indian cricket does not do anything low key. We celebrate our cricketers with open bus parades, bringing normal life to a crippling halt, and yet delay hiking player fee in domestic cricket, where hoards of them sweat it out under the belting sun with a countable number of spectators watching them.

The modus operandi in choosing the coach this time around has been no different and India have zeroed in on Gautam Gambhir to take this team forward. Not that it matters a lot, but he will be India's youngest ever head coach at the ripe age of 42 and will have the task to formulate plans that would maintain the existing health of the team.

Gambhir was an intense cricketer, whose passion to win was second to none and his intensions, sitting and watching from the dressing room will be no different. There is winning and only winning in the Gambhir manual of cricket.

Yet, by choosing him, India seem to have perhaps not learnt a lesson or two from the past. In 2016, amidst a lot of excitement and positivity, India appointed Anil Kumble as the head coach. He came in with no formal experience of coaching. The only time he had spent in the backroom staff was with RCB and MI in the IPL and those were mentorship roles.

When Kumble applied for the role in 2016, there was Ravi Shastri in the reckoning but the Cricket Advisory Committee felt that the rookie was a better fit than the pro for the role. As it turned out, while Kumble has all the right in the world to consider himself as one of India's most successful coaches of the 21st century, controversy always overshadows performance for coaches in Indian cricket and just over a year after the appointment, Kumble resigned in bitter and unsavoury circumstances.

Gambhir's appointment as coach has eerie similarities to that of Kumble, in that he too is coming in with just IPL mentorship experience behind him and absolutely no formal coaching and like the legendary leg spinner, he too wears his heart on his sleeves and will not hesitate to ruffle feathers, if needed.

In that sense, his appointment as coach is a leap into the unknown. Can Gambhir temper down and let the players take greater ownership in India's success or failure? Can he resist the urge to always be so fixated towards winning? Can he put an arm around the shoulders of players when they need it the most and not bring out the hair dryer at the first instance of failure?

Incidentally, next month would mark 10 years since India first adopted the approach to back men from their own land to do a better job than those from overseas, sitting in the background when Shastri, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar were asked to play a supportive role during troubled times in England.

Since then, no foreigner has come close to taking charge of any role within the support staff. Gambhir follows a long lineage of excellence, but knows his task will be cut out, come a few weeks time.