File photo of India captain Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir© AFP
After IPL 2026, it’s time for international cricket again, starting with the Afghanistan series. Under Gautam Gambhir, India are already a force in white-ball cricket. They are the reigning Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup champions and will go in as the favourites for the 2027 ODI World Cup. But what if India need a new T20 coach? Who will be the ideal candidate? Sanjay Manjrekar believes it is Ashish Nehra. Nehra is a rarity in the IPL. He is an Indian head coach of a team – Gujarat Titans – which has quietly risen to be one of the most successful teams in recent history. Since coming into existence in 2022, GT have won the IPL once, entered the final on two other occasions and finished in the playoffs on another occasion. Nehra has been the head coach of GT from the very beginning.
“Ashish Nehra is your hard-core, street-smart cricketer. If you talk cricket with him, he’s not somebody who will get too emotional about it; he’ll just be able to look at the problems that his team has,” Manjrekar said on Sportstar.
“I love those kinds of coaches who are very clinical. He is a sharp reader of the game and somebody who doesn’t think too much outside cricket or try to please somebody and play these games that you want to play to survive or keep certain people happy, and I think that is where the players see it,” he added. “Not too much sophistication.”
“You can see that he doesn’t get affected by success as a coach. He wouldn’t want to take too much credit; he’s just a simple guy doing the hard yards quite easily and seems to love it,” said Manjrekar.
He then went on to say that the former India pacer is an ideal candidate for the head coach’s role. “If at all India is looking for a T20 coach, then this is a guy who has given results. He has an amazing record,” Manjrekar said. “He is going slightly different. Players also need to embrace Ashish Nehra, the coach.
“I don’t think he should come in as a bowling coach, because if he’s a guy who has been the head coach and has got his team to do so well under different captains, then if he comes in, he should come in as the head coach.”
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