India have won back-to-back ICC trophies with Gautam Gambhir at the helm. Period? Team India has lost series to Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, England and Ireland during GG's brief tenure as the head coach. Now, period!
Gautam Gambhir, considered an astute leader from his playing days, is a strong character in the dressing room. But with that comes a downside: he is often believed to disagree with other thought processes.
The Indian head coach highly endorses having too many all-rounders in the team, across all formats. To accommodate all-rounders, Gambhir somewhat plays bits-and-pieces sort of players over specialists.
The too many all-rounders theory backfired in the United Kingdom, when the T20 World Champions lost back-to-back series in the shortest format against minnows Ireland and then to England.
How Hardik Pandya, the all-rounder, helped India?
Meanwhile, the stand-in head coach VVS Laxman backed specialist batters and bowlers in the first T20I vs Zimbabwe, with just one all-rounder in the playing XI. The result is in front of everyone.
There can be countless arguments for that: India won just a solitary fixture, that too against the Chevrons; this same all-rounders theory was a hit during the T20 World Cup triumph earlier this year. But then India had Hardik Pandya, a genuine all-rounder.
The prolific all-rounder was one of India's batters in the T20 World Cup 2026 and his team's third-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, ending it with 217 runs and nine wickets. He had identical stats in the T20 WC 2024, where he hit 144 runs and took 11 wickets.
Apart from Pandya, India played Axar Patel and Shivam Dube as all-rounder during the 2024 and 2026 events. The former contributed as a bowling all-rounder, while the latter barely bowled.
Criterion
Axar (T20 WC 2024)
(Axar) T20 WC 2026
Dube (T20 WC 2024)
Dube (T20 WC 2026)
Matches
8
9
8
9
Runs
92
16
133
235
Bat Ave/ SR
23.0/ 139.39
5.33/ 106.67
22.17/ 114.66
39.17/ 169.06
Wickets
9
11
0
5
Economy
7.86
8.20
11.00
14.13
(Axar Patel and Shivam Dube's stats)
Indian all-rounders' struggle in UK
Let's talk about what went wrong in England and Ireland under the Gautam Gambhir regime. Without Hardik Pandya, India chose Nitish Kumar Reddy, who also injured himself before the UK tour.
The team management then fast-tracked Suryansh Shedge to the Indian fold. Shivam Dube was asked to play rather as a pure all-rounder. More responsibility came on the shoulders of Washington Sundar and Axar Patel. None of that worked for the Men in Blue.
But with the fast-bowling all-rounders barely performing with the ball, more was asked of the likes of Sundar, Axar Patel and Harshit Rana with the bat. That experiment didn’t help at all.
Among these three all-rounders, Axar was India's best batter with 48 runs across the two series, while Rana bagged the most wickets: 7 wickets in four innings. Due to ample workout, Sundar and Rana sustained injuries, ruling them out of the England series.
Criterion
Axar Patel
Washington
Harshit
Matches
7
3
5
Runs
48
14
43
Wickets
4
0
7
That said, Shivam Dube proved to be the best all-rounder across the two T20Is, scoring 130 runs and bagging five wickets in seven matches.
How VVS Laxman's conventional thinking worked in IND vs ZIM 1st T20I?
After the struggles in the UK, India, under VVS Laxman, rejigged their plans. In the first T20I vs Zimbabwe, the Men in Blue played with six specialist batters, four bowlers and just a solitary all-rounder in Shivam Dube.
Although Dube turned out to be India’s most expensive bowler on the day, the other four options made up for his spell of 0/32 in four overs.
India wrapped up the Chevrons for 125/7 on a bowling-friendly attack. But later, the batters went bang, bang, bang.
VVS Laxman and Gautam Gambhir | Source: AFP
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