Gautam Gambhir began his tenure as the Indian team head coach as the Men in Blue had their first training session at the Pallekele Stadium in Kandy for the India v Sri Lanka T20I series starting on July 27. However, the focus was on Gambhir and Hardik Pandya’s chemistry in the team bus, while Suryakumar Yadav, the new captain sat at the back.
India is set to play 3 T20Is on July 27, 28, and 30 in Kandy, and then the three-match ODI series begins on August 2 onwards at RPS in Colombo, with the other matches played on August 4 and 7.
Suryakumar Yadav was chosen over Hardik Pandya as the next India T20I captain after Rohit Sharma retired from the format post India’s T20 World Cup 2024 win. Surya will lead India for the first time as full-time captain and he has captained the side before as well in 7 T20Is, with 5 wins and 1 loss.
Gautam Gambhir and Hardik Pandya share laughs in the team bus with Suryakumar Yadav isolated at the back
Ahead of the first training session of the Indian team, the YouTube channel Sports Facts Real filmed an intriguing and shocking moment in which coach Gambhir took the front seat, with Pandya beside him instead of captain Suryakumar.
Gambhir sat in the aisle seat on the right, Hardik in the seat directly across from him on the left, and Nayar just behind the head coach.
They were spotted laughing together, indicating a positive team environment following the recent drastic changes in leadership. Suryakumar was one of the last Indian team players to join the team bus, while Hardik boarded before the skipper, but the bus was nearly full at the time, so he chose to sit in the front seat next to Gambhir.
Suryakumar’s seat was not seen in the footage, although it appeared that he was seated in the back of the vehicle. He boarded the squad bus alongside Indian all-rounder Axar Patel following the team’s practice session.
The footage also shows how the support workers transferred to another bus, emptying seats for the players, implying that Hardik did not purposefully usurp Suryakumar’s seat.
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