Gautam Gambhir's biggest challenge is expectation of winning the World Cup: Pragyan Ojha

Gautam Gambhir will have to live up to the expectations of winning the World Cup as he embarks on his journey as India coach, reckons former India spinner Pragyan Ojha.

Gambhir recently got appointed as the India head coach and he will commence with his new role in the upcoming Sri Lanka series. There will be the 3 T20I matches followed by 3 ODIs in the series.

BCCI named a new looked squad for the T20 series which includes new captain Suryakumar Yadav. Shubman Gill was appointed as his deputy while youngsters such as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag have also been picked.

India won the T20 World Cup last month which was the swansong of Rahul Dravid as India coach. And Ojha believes the expectation of winning the World Cup will be the biggest challenge for Gambhir.

"I think the expectation of winning the World Cup. After the 2011 World Cup, everybody wanted Gary [Gary Kirsten] to continue after the way the team delivered. Similarly, after Rahul bhai, everybody will have the expectation from Gautam Gambhir and senior members to win the Champions Trophy and the World Cup," Ojha said during a media meet hosted by Sony Sports on Thursday.

Although Gambhir will have to deal with some stalwarts of Indian cricket, the former India player thinks that won't be a problem at all. But he reminded the importance of winning the World Cups in other formats - the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship.

"Managing the players and the new role won't be too much worry, but winning the World Cup in the other two formats will be a big challenge. Although we won T20 World Cup, there will be huge expectations to win the Test Championship and the 2027 ODI World Cup," he added.

Ojha also spoke about the importance of preserving ODIs in the cricket calendar. Due to the popularity of T20 cricket and the eternal beauty of Tests, ODI cricket has taken a backseat in these years.

India is yet to play an ODI this year and will only play six 50-over matches till the Champions Trophy. And the former India player thinks the format has got neglected due to its time consumption and has urged the authorities to organize a bit more exciting series between the teams.