- Saturday, January 04, 2025
Gambhir is reportedly not on the same page with most of his players and the communication isn’t as good as it used to be during the time of Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid
By: India Weekly
AS INDIAN cricket deals with the fading form of its two stalwarts in captain Rohit Sharma and senior batter Virat Kohli, head coach Gautam Gambhir and his support staff’s role in handling a team in transition has also come into focus.
The ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy has been a difficult ride for the side has struggled to get the right combination in the face of an aggressive and highly-driven Australian team.
The visitors will be playing the must-win fifth and final Test in Sydney from Friday.
The on-field roller-coaster is causing some off-field issues as well with murmurs of unrest in the dressing room beginning to grow.
It is learnt that Gambhir is not on the same page with most of the players in the team and the communication isn’t as good as it used to be during the time of Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid.
Skipper Rohit Sharma has maintained that he speaks individually to the players about selection issues.
But after Gambhir took charge in July, Rohit, it is said, hasn’t actually given clarity to some of the not-so-junior players about why they were being excluded at times from the side.
His own poor form hasn’t helped Rohit’s cause.
But it is also reliably learnt that Gambhir, who is considered a more assertive person, hasn’t earned a lot of confidence from the group of players, who aren’t as old as Kohli or Rohit but are also not rookies like Harshit Rana or Nitish Reddy.
“There is a Test match to be played and then there is Champions Trophy. If the performance doesn’t improve, even Gautam Gambhir’s position wouldn’t be safe,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Gambhir’s equation with the selection committee is also not particularly clear at this point.
There are players in the team, who are feeling insecure because of his proclivity to experiment with the playing eleven.
In the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a punt like Nitish Reddy has worked out brilliantly but the handling of Shubman Gill is still being debated.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah has now been elevated to the ICC chief’s position and the Board will have his full-time successor only after January 12.
Once that administrative stability is in place, the BCCI brass will have some thinking to do.
Till Shah was in-charge of BCCI, he called the shots. Former India seamer Roger Binny, who is the current president of the Board, hasn’t been seen taking any policy related calls.
Gambhir’s future
But if India’s performance is not drastically better in the Champions Trophy in February-March, Gambhir will certainly have his wings clipped.
“He was never BCCI’s first choice (it was VVS Laxman) and some of the well-known overseas names didn’t want to coach all three formats, so he was a compromise. Obviously, some other compulsions were also there,” the official said.
Gambhir has already been asked a few tough questions after the 0-3 defeat at home to New Zealand and if the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is also lost, it can all go downhill for the feisty former opener from Delhi’s Old Rajinder Nagar.
Already there is a school of thought that Gambhir should only be given charge of the T20 team, a format in which he has been a successful captain and then mentor for both Kolkata Knight Riders and Lucknow SuperGiants.
One question that is being asked in the corridors of power is whether he has been able to offer any solutions to Virat Kohli with regards to his never-ending dismissals in the outside off-stump channel? By the look of things, the answer to that seems to be an emphatic no.
“Gautam, all his life, while playing in England and Australia, would dab the ball towards slip and gully. So, he knows exactly what Kohli’s problem is. He has seen that as a player (in 2014) and as a commentator and now as a coach.
“If he knows what is wrong, he should tell him,” a former India great, with the experience of more than 90 Tests, said.
Glenn McGrath lauds Bumrah
Australian pace great Glenn McGrath claimed that Jasprit Bumrah’s incredible performance has prevented the Border-Gavaskar series from becoming completely lopsided in Australia’s favour.
He lauded the India spearhead for his ball-control and ability to adapt quickly.
Bumrah has been India’s standout performer with 30 wickets so far at an average of less than 20. India’s batting, however, has been poor and lacked planning.
“He has been a massive part of the Indian team and without him, the series might have been more one-sided and what he does is special,” McGrath told media-persons on the sidelines of his foundation’s cancer awareness event in Sydney.
The 54-year-old, who was among the most consistent and dreaded pacers of his era, has been actively involved in cancer awareness programmes after losing his wife Jane to the disease back in 2008.
He has been following the ongoing series and much like the rest of Australia, he too is bowled over by the Gujarat slinger’s amazing skill-set.
“Terrific young guy who has found a way to adapt. Absolutely incredible how he powers into bowl the last few steps,” McGrath said of Bumrah’s short run-up.
McGrath also found eerie similarities between him and the Indian in terms of hyper-extension of their arms (when the elbow joint bends backward beyond its normal range).
He said it allows them to land the ball a few inches further.
“Got a little bit of hyper extension which I used to have as well. He is coping with it, he has incredible control both ways, guess they are managing him well. I am a massive fan of Jasprit,” said the lanky former bowler, who was nicknamed ‘Pigeon’ by his teammates for his thin legs. (PTI)
