Indian national cricket team’s star wicketkeeper and batsman Rishabh Pant has given a brutally honest verdict on former and current head coach of the national team, Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir.

Rahul Dravid had a very successful run with the Indian team as after reaching multiple ICC finals, the Men in Blue finally managed to lift a World Cup and end their ICC trophy drought.

Under Dravid, India contested the finals of the 2023 ICC World Test Championship and the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup against Australia. In both matches, India suffered heartbreaking defeats, but Rahul Dravid did not give up.

Dravid was given a contract extension by BCCI after the loss in the ODI World Cup final and got one last chance to win the trophy with the team in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. The duo of Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma worked very hard for the tournament and made good game plans, which ultimately helped them win the final against South Africa and lift the T20 World Cup trophy.

When the T20 World Cup ended, Rahul Dravid’s contract with BCCI expired and he parted ways with the Indian team. To replace him, BCCI looked at several options but settled on Gautam Gambhir, who had no prior coaching experience.

It is noteworthy that Gautam Gambhir worked as a mentor for the Lucknow Super Giants and the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, but he did not serve as the head coach of any team before taking up the job in India. Still, the BCCI trusted him and awarded him a contract till 2027.

Gautam Gambhir has so far participated in two series with the Indian National Cricket Team and has had the opportunity to work with the dynamic batsman and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

Gautam Gambhir is very partial about the fact that you have to win – Rishabh Pant

Rishabh Pant, after spending a good amount of time with both the coaches, shared his verdict on the duo. Speaking to JioCinema ahead of the Duleep Trophy 2024, where he is representing India B, Rishabh Pant bluntly said that both Rahul Dravid and Gautam Gambhir are very different as the former is quite balanced and the latter is quite aggressive.

Pant added that the newly appointed India head coach is very “one-sided” when it comes to winning but stressed the importance of maintaining a balanced approach.

“I think Rahul bhai was very balanced as a human being and as a coach. He can be good or bad. There are positives and negatives and it depends on where one wants to focus. Gauti bhai (Gambhir) is more aggressive, he is very partial to the fact that you have to win. But you have to find the right balance and improve,” Pant said.

Rishabh Pant, on Thursday, September 5, made his return to red-ball cricket, featuring in the 2024 Duleep Trophy. Red-ball cricket is labelled as the best format for Pant, but he disappointed with his performance on Day 1. Rishabh Pant scored just 7 runs off 10 balls, before being dismissed by Akash Deep when Shubman Gill took a blinder to remove the wicketkeeper-batsman.

After the first round of the Duleep Trophy, Rishabh Pant will be seen in action in the home Test series against the Bangladesh National Cricket Team, where he will don the white jersey to represent India after a long time. He will be a crucial member of the Indian team in the coming months, considering the number of Test matches that the Rohit Sharma-led team will be playing.