'We value Test cricket': Gary Kirsten reveals conversation with Gautam Gambhir after India beat Sri Lanka by 165 runs in Galle originally appeared on Cricket News . Add Cricket News as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
Gary Kirsten revealed the substance of his conversation with Gautam Gambhir after the Galle Test.
The Sri Lanka coach said both men share a deep regard for the longest format.
India won the first Test by 165 runs to take a 1-0 series lead.
The India dressing room and the Sri Lanka dressing room in Galle housed two men with a shared history and, as it turns out, a shared philosophy. Gary Kirsten, who coached Gautam Gambhir for three years as an India player, has now revealed what the pair discussed after their sides met in the series opener.
India completed a comprehensive 165-run victory on the final day, with Manav Suthar's 10-wicket haul and Devdutt Padikkal's first-innings 167 the foundations of the win. It handed Gambhir's side 12 crucial World Test Championship points and a 1-0 lead heading to Colombo.
Kirsten took charge of Sri Lanka in April on a two-year contract, having previously guided India to the 2011 World Cup with Gambhir scoring 97 in the final. The pair's reunion in opposing dugouts made for one of the more intriguing subplots of the series.
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Kirsten explained that the exchange centred less on the result and more on their shared outlook towards the format, along with the demands of the job itself.
"Both me and Gautam Gambhir value Test cricket and there is a certain way we both want our teams to play. Good conversation with him but it was more about the challenges of coaching," Kirsten said at the post-match press conference.
The remark reinforces a mutual respect that predates the series. Ahead of the first Test, Kirsten had backed his former ward publicly amid mounting criticism of India's red-ball record, describing him as a fantastic coach whose achievements spoke for themselves.
"He has won a T20 World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy. He's also had success in the IPL. His record speaks for itself. I really enjoyed working with him when he was a player," Kirsten had said. "He's a smart cricketer, and I knew he'd have success as coach."
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Kirsten's observation about a shared reverence for the format lands squarely with Gambhir's own history. As a player, Gambhir built his reputation on precisely the qualities Test cricket demands, most famously the 137 he made across more than 10 hours in Napier in 2009 to save a Test, and the 97 in the 2011 World Cup final that Kirsten watched from the dugout.
That regard has continued into his coaching. Gambhir has repeatedly stated that Test cricket remains the ultimate examination of a player's character, and his willingness to blood young cricketers like Suthar and Padikkal in the longest format, rather than reaching for safer names, reflects a coach building for the format rather than protecting his own record.
With his red-ball tenure under sustained scrutiny, a win of this magnitude in Galle offers welcome validation of an approach he has never wavered from.
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