 "After enjoying full freedom from BCCI, it's time for Gautam Gambhir to repay the faith")
Discussions about the future of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the Indian cricket team have recently dominated sports news. However, Gautam Gambhir must be scrutinised also for his inability to deliver results in the months since taking over as Team India’s head coach.
Gambhir succeeded Rahul Dravid, who had led India to a historic T20 World Cup victory in the West Indies. The ODI and T20 World Cup winner took charge of a team fresh off a World Cup win and came with high expectations, especially after mentoring Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL) title. These lofty expectations explain why the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) gave him significant autonomy.
Gambhir enjoyed a free hand in selecting his support staff
Gambhir was granted a free hand in assembling his support staff, selecting Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate as assistant coaches and Morne Morkel as the bowling coach.
Additionally, the 43-year-old from Delhi was allowed to appoint Suryakumar Yadav as India's T20I captain, bypassing Hardik Pandya, following Rohit Sharma’s retirement from the format. Despite these privileges, Gambhir’s performance as head coach has raised questions.
He started his tenure with a 3-0 T20I series win in Sri Lanka but lost the ODI series 2-0. India then hosted Bangladesh and won 2-0 in the Test series and 3-0 in the T20Is. But things have been going downhill since then.
The Test series against New Zealand at home ended with a 3-0 defeat – India’s first Test series loss at home since 2012 and their first 3-0 defeat in own backyard.
Gambhir’s coaching tenure has been a disaster so far
It became worse when the Rohit-led side was beaten 3-1 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia despite winning the first Test at Perth. This was India’s first Test series loss Down Under in a decade.
Overall, except for T20Is, Gambhir has been struggling to get results in the other two formats. He has only seen India win three out of 10 Tests including a rare home series loss, while the ODI series defeat in Sri Lanka was the Men In Blue's first in 27 years.
Impact Shorts
View AllGambhir’s record as Team India head caoch
| Format | Matches | Won | Lost | Draw/Tie | Win% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | 10 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 30% |
| ODIs | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 66% |
| T20Is | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
Another disconcerting fact under Gambhir’s coaching has been the shocking dressing room leak about a senior player trying to take over Team India's captaincy while Rohit struggled to score runs and was eventually dropped for the final Test in Sydney and the failure of GG and his support staff to bring technical improvement in the game of out-of-form players.
Rohit scored 31 runs in Australia in five innings, while Kohli managed only 190 runs from nine essays. All of Kohli’s eight dismissals came in the same fashion, caught behind the wicket. Throughout five Tests, neither Gambhir nor his support staff was able to help Kohli or Rohit sort out their technical problems.
This was also recently called out by the great Sunil Gavaskar who questioned the work done by Team India coaches. “What was your coaching staff doing – the bowling coach, the batting coach? Against New Zealand, when we had been bowled for 46; and the way we were defeated in the remaining matches, our batting was not strong enough. Here (in Australia) also our batting was not strong enough. So questions should be asked, what have you guys done? Why can’t we see any improvement?” Gavaskar asked on Star Sports.
“We understand here the bowling was top class and our batters couldn’t face them, fine. Even the greatest batters have difficulty in facing good bowling. But when good bowling is not happening, then tell me what has the coaching staff done?”
Luckily for Gambhir, the BCCI seems to be in no mood to penalise him in the near future, as the board is focussed on the Champions Trophy 2025 in February-March and the five-match Test series in England later this year. However, given the faith placed in him and the freedom granted to him regarding support staff and team selection, it’s high time Gambhir starts delivering results.
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