"They’ll be shaken up, maybe even woken up" - Russel Arnold analyses the likely impact of Gautam Gambhir’s appointment as India’s coach

Former Sri Lanka batter Russel Arnold reckons that the appointment of Gautam Gambhir as Team India's new head coach is a positive move. According to Arnold, players tend to get comfortable after a while in a familiar environment and a change of personnel can keep them on their toes.

Gambhir has replaced Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the senior Indian men's team. In his last assignment as India coach, Dravid guided the Men in Blue to victory in the 2024 T20 World Cup. The white-ball series in Sri Lanka, starting on Saturday, July 27, will be Gambhir's first assignment as India's coach.

Speaking to News 18, Arnold shared his thoughts on the big change in Indian cricket. Praising Gambhir, he described the former India opener as someone who knows how to handle people and deliver results.

"So sometimes players, when we play, we are able to go out there and perform, but then it becomes a challenge to get a message across, and get others to perform, which Gautam Gambhir has shown that he can do. We definitely know it’s going to be a different style," Arnold told the website.

"There’ll be a bit of adjustment for people to come to terms with Gautam Gambhir, but I think the change is also good because then you become too familiar with one system and hence they’ll be shaken up, maybe even woken up that you still need to get better and you still need to perform a lot more," the 50-year-old concluded.

The India vs Sri Lanka series will begin with the first T20I at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The remaining two T20Is will also be played at the same venue on July 28 and July 30.

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"Our bond has always been special" - Suryakumar Yadav on Gautam Gambhir

While Gambhir has been named India's new head coach, Suryakumar Yadav also takes over as T20I captain from Rohit Sharma. Gambhir and Suryakumar were once teammates at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the IPL and are said to share a great camaraderie.

Highlighting his equation with the coach, Suryakumar said at a pre-match press conference:

"Our bond has always been special. From 2014 till now, it has been exactly 10 years. In 2018, I joined another [IPL] franchise and he joined another franchise. But we used to talk regularly about the game. When he used to play with another team, I used to play with him. We used to discuss the game to see if we could do better in that match.”

Meanwhile, after the conclusion of the T20I series India will play three ODIs in Sri Lanka from August 2 to August 7.