Ravichandran Ashwin, the 37-year-old Indian national cricket team player, shared his bold views on the newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir, who began his tenure with the series against the Sri Lanka national cricket team.

Gautam Gambhir was hired as the head coach of the Indian National Cricket Team after Rahul Dravid’s tenure ended. Dravid ended his tenure with a good result as he guided India to victory in the 2024 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup to end their ICC trophy drought.

Under Gautam Gambhir, India started well by defeating the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team in the away T20I series, which was also Suryakumar Yadav’s first series as full-time captain.

Many expected India to continue their dominance on the tour by crushing Sri Lanka in the next ODI series in the presence of a full-strength line-up. However, that did not happen as Rohit Sharma and Co. lost 0-2 and Gautam Gambhir suffered his first ever series defeat as India’s head coach.

It will be a big challenge for Gambhir to ensure that the Indian National Cricket Team forgets the defeat against Sri Lanka and moves on as they have a long home season ahead with Test matches against Bangladesh and New Zealand as well as a Border-Gavaskar series away against Australia.

Ahead of the Test season, Ravichandran Ashwin shared his candid views on Gambhir. He said that the Indian head coach is a very straightforward and honest person and they share a great bond. Ashwin went on to label Gautam Gambhir as the hero of Indian cricket for his contributions.

“Gautam is someone I still have a very, very good relationship with because he is a very straightforward and honest guy. I think Gautam is also one of those guys we should always support. He is a hero of Indian cricket,” Ravichandran Ashwin said in an interaction with news agency PTI.

I am very happy that many youngsters are coming now and earning good amount of money – Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin recently displayed his heroics in the Tamil Nadu Premier League and led Dindigul Dragons to victory. He spoke about how young Indian cricketers are earning a good amount of money, which is changing their lives.

“I am very happy that a lot of youngsters are coming now and earning good amount of money. This is changing their way of life, it is changing the status of their families. It is amazing for India, for the Indian cricket ecosystem,” Ravichandran Ashwin said.

“But I still think there must be some incentive and some motivation for all these kids to want to play for India, and that is absolutely in the hands of the stakeholders and the decision-makers.”

Ravichandran Ashwin’s role will be crucial for India in the upcoming Test matches, especially the ones to be played at home against Bangladesh and New Zealand. The Test matches against Bangladesh will begin on September 19 and 27, while the Test matches against the Kiwis will begin on October 16, 24 and November 1.