Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad lash out at Gambhir’s rotation policy as India suffer another home Test whitewash: ‘Rank poor tactics’

Former Indian cricketers Anil Kumble and Venkatesh Prasad criticised Gautam Gambhir’s constant chopping and changing with Team India’s batting line-up, squad and playing XI as the team suffered the second series sweep defeat at home under the former opener’s guidance .

After suffering a 3-0 whitewash for the first time at home against New Zealand in 2024, India were beaten 2-0 by South Africa in the two-match Test series on Wednesday. Having won the first Test by 30 runs in Kolkata, South Africa clinched the second match by 408 runs in Guwahati. This is India’s biggest defeat in Test cricket by runs.

Another Test series defeat, that also another whitewash, sparked debate over Gambhir trying out multiple players in Test cricket and consistently picking all-rounders over specialists.

Kumble, Prasad slam Gambhir’s chopping-and-changing

Kumble spoke about the same in his post-match discussion on JioHotstar as he termed the defeat in Guwahati as “abject surrender” by the Indian team.

“It was abject surrender. Good bowling, conditions were not very easy, but you need to find some adjustments, the adaptability. Just put your head down and bat. Jadeja showed that you needed to be positive,” Kumble said.

“Test match needs a different type of mindset. You can’t have so many all-rounders, so many changes, every second game, so many players come in. India’s next home Test is in August 2026, so India have time to think. But you can’t forget this. Because stalwarts have retired in the last few months who have been pillars of Test cricket, so you need to have a vision…you can’t have a few experienced players and the rest of them all trying to find their feet."

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Kumble’s former teammate Venkatesh Prasad slammed India’s Test approach, calling the team’s all-rounder obsession “brain-fade” and blaming poor tactics, poor skills, and selections based on IPL rather than Ranji or Duleep Trophy performances for back-to-back home whitewashes.

“Really disappointed by how India is going about in Test cricket. The all-rounder obsession is absolute brain-fade especially when you don’t bowl them. Rank Poor tactics, poor skills , poor body language and an unprecedented 2 series white wash at home. Hope this does not get washed off with Test matches 9 months away and this negative approach changes,” Prasad wrote on X.

“Need to play specialists and players need to be picked on the basis of Ranji, Duleep Trophy in domestic cricket. Can pick in 50 overs based on IPL performance, but for Test cricket, Ranji and Duleep trophy have to be the barometer. Yash Rathod, Shubham Sharma, Baba Indrajith , Smaran Ravichandran are names most wouldn’t have heard off as they don’t play IPL but consistently scoring runs in domestic cricket,” he continued.

“Can’t play sub 40 FC avg players in the Test team based on IPL performances. Playing all rounder in Indian conditions because he can bat is not the correct approach in Test cricket. Test Cricket needs specialists. We all love Indian cricket and it’s sad to see what’s happening over the last year and a half just to somehow prove this flawed strategy right. Can’t function on such egos in the interest of Indian cricket , Truly disappointing.”