India, Sept. 24 -- The relationship between a head coach and an Indian captain is rarely confined to tactics. Selection calls, dressing-room authority, tactical disagreements and the relentless scrutiny surrounding the national team can turn even the most functional partnership into something considerably more complicated. For Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma, however, the equation had another layer. By the time Gambhir took charge of India, theirs was not a relationship beginning with a coach walking into a dressing room and attempting to understand his captain. It stretched considerably further back, to a time when Gambhir was one of India's senior cricketers and Rohit was still finding his place in international cricket.

Gambhir, refle...