India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir finds himself on a sticky wicket after the team’s historic lows in the Test series against New Zealand. After the lowest total of 46 in a Test innings on home soil in Bengaluru, India lost in Pune to concede the series — first such instance since 2012. The facts and history became further embarrassing when India faced defeat in Mumbai as well to be whitewashed in a three-Test home series for the first time.
Understandably, reports of BCCI to soon take stock of the situation have filtered in, with the possibility of Gambhir not being involved in selection matters going forward and asked to explain what went wrong against New Zealand.
The series defeat has also jeopardised India’s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship (WTC) final. After slipping to second spot and losing their top position in the WTC table to Australia, India’s chances hinge on successful defence of the Border Gavaskar Trophy in Australia by a distance.
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The series in Australia begins with the first Test in Perth from November 22.
Team India’s decision to play on turners in Pune and Mumbai backfired as New Zealand spinners Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel trapped India in their own net. While it has also been reported that the entire think-tank was not on the same page about the decision to roll out rank tuners, some of the experts believe that 3-4 months is too soon a time to judge anyone — in this case Gambhir as coach.
“Coaching doesn’t come to you overnight,” former India allrounder Vijay Bharadwaj said, while talking to Timesofindia.com. “It takes a lot of time. There are lots of case studies that need to be done. It’s just not about holding a degree or doing a coaching course. You keep coaching kids and teams, only then you will understand. It’s just not that they come into a coaching stint, straight away take it up and then be successful. That will never be the case.
“So why people are in a hurry, I don’t understand. Anyways, this is a learning lesson (for Gambhir),” he added.
However, without elaborating much, Bharadwaj said Gambhir has made some “glaring mistakes”.
“He has made some glaring mistakes, which has cost us the series. Indian team’s coaching is not the same as coaching an IPL team. It’s a different ball game,” said Bharadwaj, pointing towards Gambhir’s successful stint as mentor in Kolkata Knight Riders‘ (KKR) title-winning run in the Indian Premier League earlier this year.
Following that and at the end of Rahul Dravid‘s tenure as India coach, the BCCI appointed Gambhir as India’s head coach and agreed to all his demands related to the support staff. Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate, who were also part of the KKR set-up, were appointed as assistant coaches and Morne Morkel, who worked with Gambhir at Lucknow Super Giants, joined as bowling coach.
When asked where he ranks Gambhir among India’s recent successful coaches, namely Ravi Shastri and Dravid, Bharadwaj decided to tag the former India opener as “learner” in the coaching trade.
“In one word, Ravi shastri was a motivator; he never had any coaching background as such. Rahul Dravid was more of a facilitator. He had some (coaching) background with India A and the U-19 teams, but formally they are not trained coaches. Gautam Gambhir, I am sure, is in the learning mode. So, a learner. It’s a long way and too early to judge anybody,” said the former all-rounder, who recently joined Delhi Capitals as the head of the talent scout wing.
While 3-4 months is a kind of hand-holding period for a big job like the Indian cricket team’s head coach, losing all the Tests of a series at home won’t be swept under the carpet.
On that note, it’s interesting to look at the numbers of Shastri and Dravid in the first four months of their coaching stint in comparison with Gambhir.
GAUTAM GAMBHIR

– Two Tests vs Bangladesh at home (won 2-0)
– Three Tests vs New Zealand at home (won 3-0)
RAHUL DRAVID

– Two Tests vs New Zealand at home (won 1-0)
– Three Tests in South Africa (lost 1-2)
– Two Tests vs Sri Lanka at home (won 2-0)
RAVI SHASTRI

– Three Tests in Sri Lanka (won 3-0)
– Two Tests vs Sri Lanka at home (won 1-0)
(Stats Courtesy: Rajesh Kumar)