England head coach Brendon McCullum has said that having worked with Gautam Gambhir before, he can assure that the Indian is a brilliant leader and he has always excelled whenever he has held a leadership position in any team. McCullum is in India for the five-match T20I and three-match ODI series against the home side beginning January 22 in Kolkata.

Gambhir has been under immense pressure after a torrid start to his Indian head coaching tenure. Since taking over in July, he has lost an ODI series in Sri Lanka, suffered a Test series at whitewash against New Zealand at home and a Test series defeat in Australia.

The upcoming assignment against India will be McCullum's first in white-ball cricket, having coached the Test side with plenty of success over the last three years.

"What I will say about Gautam Gambhir is I've worked with him before and he's an outstanding leader. He's a really strong leader of men and in the time that he's had in any sort of leadership positions which he's held previously, he's been able to excel I'm sure," McCullum said ahead of the first T20I.

"He's only just sort of got underway with this team but there's no doubt that he'll be the best out of the talent that he's got and we've got to find a way to be able to counter that with our style," McCullum added.

The former New Zealand cricketer played for Kolkata Knight Riders under Gambhir's leadership in 2012 and 2013, with their franchise winning their maiden IPL title in the former. McCullum said that a coach's main job is to ensure that the dressing room is happy and in a healthy space, rather than teaching technicalities.

"I don't know, sometimes I don't even know if coach is the right word, to be honest. I think everyone does things differently and everyone's approaches are very unique. And how I try and operate, I think it's probably less of a coach," McCullum said.

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