'I’ll give him 4 out of 10' - Mohammad Kaif rates Gautam Gambhir's tenure as India coach

Mohammad Kaif has come out with scathing criticism of Gautam Gambhir regarding his tenure as India coach after a video emerged on social media revealing the team head coach not seeing eye to eye with star batter Virat Kohli ahead of the ODI series against England.

Gambhir has completed two years of his tenure as the Indian coach. Under him, India has lifted the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy and successfully defended their ICC T20 World Cup crown in 2026. Despite this, results in bilateral series have been questionable, with home whitewashes against South Africa and New Zealand and an away series loss to Australia in Tests and the recent 4-0 blitz at the hands of England away from home in T20Is.

Speaking of the former opening batter's tenure at the helm of India's coaching job, Kaif has expressed that it is key for the coach to maintain clear and transparent communication with senior players. 

“I’ll reduce some numbers. I’ll give him 4 out of 10. I’ll tell you why. There are recent reports which points out that Gambhir and Kohli are not seeing eye to eye. We have seen Gambhir interacting with Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill. This is one problem," the former India cricketer told via Cricbuzz.

"The job of the coach and the management is to maintain transparency and to initiate communication. They should keep everyone on the same page. Winning and losing will be on the ground. But the reasons behind them, like if a player is dropped, tell them why so that the player is not in doubt,” he added.

Kaif further stated that the Men in Blue's focus on the 2027 ODI World Cup in Africa means that priority needs to be put on away tours, where maintaining relationships with key players will be vital, which, if not maintained properly, could impact the team in a negative manner.

“Now, if Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir are not working together, this is not a good sign for India. If they are not in the same page, this is bed news for Indian fans. Because in this England tour, we are focussing on the 2027 World Cup," the cricketer-turned-commentator expressed.

"It won’t be easy to win in overseas conditions so you have to maintain unity in the team. Senior players have a very big role. You need to go to the senior players’ room and talk to them on how you can fix the problem. This is the job of a coach,” the Uttar Pradesh-born cricketer concluded.

India beat England in the first of three ODIs against England by six wickets at Edgbaston, bundling the hosts down for 258 and chasing it down with relative ease.