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Former India opener Wasim Jaffer spoke on the importance of the Indian cricket team’s upcoming Test series for head coach Gautam Gambhir and a potential split-format coaching setup.
Over the past month, Team India has played a spate of T20Is and ODIs in Ireland, England, and Zimbabwe. Post the IPL 2026, India hosted Afghanistan in a one-off Test match in Mullanpur, but that game wasn’t part of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship (WTC) 2025-27 cycle.
When is India’s next Test series?
India will tour Sri Lanka for a two-Test series, beginning August 15, to be played in Galle and Colombo. Then, in November, New Zealand will host India for a two-match Test series in Wellington and Christchurch. At the beginning of the next year, the India vs Australia Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be played from January 21 in India.
Fate of Gautam Gambhir’s position as Test team coach hangs by a thread
Jaffer reckoned India’s next three Test series are going to be crucial for Gambhir, and their outcomes could potentially decide his future as the Test team’s coach. Despite two ICC white-ball trophy achievements, Gambhir has come under a lot of pressure as India lost home Test series to New Zealand and South Africa on either side of losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia.
What the results of these three Test series will definitely impact is whether India manage to reach the ICC WTC Final. Currently, India are in the sixth position in the WTC points table, having slipped down after the series defeat against South Africa last November.
Speaking on his official YouTube channel, Jaffer said, “The upcoming series against Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and Australia are huge. I think this will be a real testing period because, as far as I know, we need to win almost 90% of our remaining matches to qualify for the World Test Championship final. That will be the acid test for both the players and the coaching staff.
“I don’t believe Sri Lanka will be that difficult for the Indian team. India should be able to beat Sri Lanka, but the series against New Zealand and Australia will be the real test.”
Jaffer also opined on the split-format coaching setup that teams like England, Pakistan, and West Indies have used either currently or in the past. India, though, have never gone that route.
However, Gambhir’s results – immense success in white-ball cricket but disappointing returns in Test cricket – could prompt the BCCI to ponder over it. Jaffer believes such an approach could be more adopted in the future by teams around the world.
“I think, going forward, we’ll start seeing these things (split-format coaching) happen more often. A lot of players come and go, the formats change frequently, and there’s very little time to settle in. So, in my opinion, it makes sense. Whether it actually happens or not remains to be seen. Usually, decisions like these are taken when teams are losing. When you’re winning, neither the players nor, obviously, the support staff are changed very much,” the former opener added.
India vs Australia Test series: When is the BGT series?
The next India vs Australia BGT Test series is scheduled for January-February in India. The first Test will be played from January 21 in Nagpur, followed by Test matches in Chennai, Guwahati, Ranchi, and Ahmedabad.
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