Former Indian batter Mohammad Kaif has rated head coach Gautam Gambhir’s two-year tenure as 4/10. Kaif shed light on reports, indicating friction between Gambhir and Virat Kohli amid the ongoing England tour.

Under Gambhir, India has struggled to get going in Test cricket. India have lost home series against New Zealand and South Africa. Furthermore, India failed to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy, suffering a 3-1 loss against Australia while playing away. However, the team has also won the 2025 Champions Trophy, the 2026 T20 World Cup and drew 2-2 in a five-match Test series under Gambhir’s tutelage.

Kaif reckons it is the duty of the team management to communicate with his players in the best possible manner and tell them the reason behind their snubbing. The former UP batter believes it is imperative that the team’s think tank and players remain on the same page.

“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 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,” Kaif said to Cricbuzz.

“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 2017 World Cup. 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,” he added.

Kohli was dismissed after scoring five runs in the series opener against England.