India, Jan. 29 -- Gautam Gambhir didn't arrive as a caretaker after Rahul Dravid gave up his role as the head coach of India after the T20 World Cup 2024. He arrived like a coach with a whiteboard and a scalpel, cutting away fixed roles to see what still functions under pressure.

The BCCI announcement set the tone: he would take charge from the Sri Lanka tour and help build excellence while nurturing young talent.

Since he has started, Gambhir has apparently been a scientist and the India team is a laboratory of experiments. The "Dr Gautam Gambhir" idea works because the method is visible: treat batting slots, match roles and even leadership lanes as variables, so the team becomes harder to read and quicker to adapt. It is not experimen...