'Captain is the one who is responsible': Sunil Gavaskar reminds Shubman Gill it’s his team, not Gambhir’s

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar has sparked a fresh debate about the captain-coach dynamic of Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir in the Indian Test team. Speaking on Day 4 of the fourth Test against England in Manchester, Gavaskar stressed that the team belongs to the captain, not the coach, and that the final say on selection should rest with Gill.

After the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma earlier this year, Gill was named India’s new Test captain. But many have questioned whether the young skipper truly has full authority in the dressing room with experienced Gautam Gambhir as coach. Some even call it Gambhir’s team, given his influence on other sides where he has served previously.

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Gavaskar wants Shubman to take responsibility

Gavaskar highlighted recent selection decisions, like Kuldeep Yadav missing out throughout the England tour and Shardul Thakur being dropped and then recalled after Nitish Kumar Reddy’s injury, as examples where the captain’s choice should have mattered most. Gavaskar said that even if Gambhir may have influenced selection calls, it is the captain’s responsibility because he is the one leading the team.

“We didn’t have coaches. We just had former players as managers or assistant managers of the team. They were the kind of people who you went up to and talked to, they gave you some advice at lunchtime or at the end of the day’s play or on the eve of the game,” Gavaskar told Sony Sports.

“So, it is difficult for me to get my head around the captain and the coach’s combination. When I was captain, we had nobody who was a former player. To be honest, we have Wing Commander Durrani, Raj Singh Dungarpur. The only time we had Erapalli Prassana, and he was great.”

“The point is that at the end of the day it’s a captain’s team, like Nasser said. You can’t say this, he didn’t want somebody, maybe in Shardul Thakur’s case or Kuldeep Yadav’s case - he should have had them in the team. He’s the captain. People are going to talk about him and his captaincy. So, it’s got to be his call really,” he added.

“I know for the sake of showing everything hunky dory these things might not come out. The fact is that captain is the one who is responsible. He is the one, who is going to be leading those.”

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India are currently 2-1 down in the series and face an uphill battle in the ongoing fourth Test, trailing by 137 runs in the second innings with eight wickets in hand. They must win or at least draw this game to stay alive in the contest heading into the fifth Test.