Gautam Gambhir's old rival joins BCCI setup [Source: AFP]Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir recently enjoyed stellar success as he powered the Men in Blue to their third T20 World Cup title. Under Gambhir's coaching, India became the first team to defend a T20 World Cup, and Suryakumar Yadav became the third player from the country to add the coveted trophy to his cabinet. Interestingly, the T20 World Cup win marked India's second ICC title triumph during Gambhir's coaching stint. Earlier, the former opener had led the Men in Blue to a Champions Trophy victory, which marked Rohit Sharma's final triumph as the Indian captain. Despite leading the team to two ICC title wins, Gautam Gambhir seeks redemption as a Test coach, with India suffering crushing defeats against South Africa and New Zealand on home soil. The Test team is undergoing a tough transition phase, and with India aiming to fine-tune their red-ball game, the BCCI is organising age-group camps to discover budding talents from across the country. As the Indian board is preparing to conduct an Emerging men's high performance camp for the next-gen cricketers, Gautam Gambhir's old rival Wasim Jaffer has joined one of the BCCI setups as head coach. BCCI ropes in Gautam Gambhir's old rival Wasim Jaffer as head coach for U-23 campThe Emerging men's high performance camp will be conducted at the BCCI Centre of Excellence from April 13 to May 7. As the Indian board aims to groom the young cricketers to play at the highest level, it has appointed Gautam Gambhir's old rival, Wasim Jaffer, as one of the head coaches for the high performance camp. Also Read: KKR Called To Bring Back Gautam Gambhir Amid IPL 2026 SlumpIt's worth mentioning that Wasim Jaffer made his international debut for India in 2000, while Gambhir was introduced to the national team three years later. As Virender Sehwag had already cemented his place, Jaffer and Gambhir were competitors for a fair bit of time before the latter became a regular member of the Indian Test team in 2007. According to Gaurav Gupta from TOI, Wasim Jaffer is one of the head coaches alongside Hrishikesh Kanitkar and M Venkataramana. The trio will be tasked to groom 60 players, barring those involved in the IPL, in the high performance camp at the CoE. Wasim Jaffer's career at a glanceRenowned for his stoic technique, Wasim Jaffer played 33 international matches, including 31 Tests and two ODIs, for India between 2000 and 2008. In his eight-year-long career, Wasim Jaffer scored 1954 runs, including five centuries and eleven half-centuries. He retired as a domestic stalwart, amassing 19410 First-Class runs. Talking about Jaffer's coaching credentials, he has served as the coach of Odisha, Uttarakhand and Punjab, while also being associated with IPL franchise Punjab Kings in the past. Who are the other BCCI coaches for the U-23 camp?Apart from Wasim Jaffer, Hrishikesh Kanitkar and M Venkataramana, the U-23 players will be guided by six other prominent personalities. Laxmipathy Balaji, Sunil Joshi and Saurashish Lahiri will serve as the bowling coaches, with Atul Ranade, Milap Mewada and Subhojit Ghosh set to help the emerging talents improve their fielding skills. Also Read: Usman Tariq Hits Back At Ravichandran Ashwin On Daryl Mitchell Controversy
