These are early days as head coach of the national team for Gautam Gambhir, but they have been anything but satisfying, fulfilling days.
The former India opener inherited a massively successful team in July from his role model Rahul Dravid, who stepped aside after two and a half years at the helm following India’s title triumph at the T20 World Cup in Bridgetown in June. Gambhir knew he had massive shoes to fill, a huge legacy to live up to, but he has found life in the fast lane anything but peachy.
As honeymoon periods go, this hasn’t lasted very long. The first signs that Gambhir had a job on his hands came in Colombo in August, when India’s batters crashed and burned against Sri Lankan spin to surrender a three-match One-Day International series 0-2 (the first game ended in a tie). It ought to have been an early eye-opener, a reality check against the misconception that India continue to be excellent players of the turning ball. Perhaps that message wasn’t heeded, one of the reasons for their stunning 3-0 whitewash at home by New Zealand, an outcome that has left their qualification for the final of the World Test Championship in serious jeopardy.
Rohit Sharma spoke passionately the other day about the need for the players to take responsibility in trying to make the job of the incoming support staff easier. The skipper has a point, certainly. For a long time, the team had gotten used to a particular style of functioning. To immediately have to reset and follow a different tack can be demanding, but it must also be as challenging for Gambhir to step in and try to shake up the established order. Synergy is often underrated in the world of competitive sport but at the highest level, coaching is less about high left elbows and proper wrist positions than managing players and creating the right environment in which these established (superstar?) players can give off their best, day after day.
Gambhir has been extremely busy in the last three months – a white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July-August (three T20Is, as many ODIs), a two-Test series against Bangladesh in September, three T20Is against the same team in October and now the horror three-Test showdown against New Zealand, which ended in unprecedented humiliation at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Sunday. In 12 previous tours to India, the Kiwis had won only two Tests, the last of them in November 1988. In the space of three weeks and a total of ten playing days, they became the first side to win three consecutive Tests in India, the first team to subject India to a sweep in a home series of at least three Tests.
The buck can’t stop with the players alone, as silly as it might sound. It might be tempting to argue that after all, they are the ones who are out there in the middle, battling it out. Isn’t it their skill and patience and mettle and character and the ability to respond to challenges and pressure that decides the outcome? Of course. But if that alone were sufficient, then why have a coach in the first place? Why have a burgeoning support staff handpicked by the incoming coach? Why have assistant coaches and throwdown specialists and the ilk?
Gambhir under scrutiny
That Gambhir is under scrutiny is hardly in doubt. Already, questions are being asked about his presence at selection meetings, a privilege not accorded to several of his predecessors. His insistence – that’s the whispered word – on turning tracks for home Tests is under the microscope. The inclusion in various Indian sides of players from certain teams he was involved with earlier is being queried. That’s what happens, particularly when it comes to cricket in India, when the results aren’t forthcoming. The New Zealand wipeout wasn’t just unexpected, it was disastrous on so many counts. Not even Gambhir would have expected to escape scathing criticism, never mind that it is still early days in his three-and-a-half-year tenure as the head coach. Is all the brick-batting fair? What’s it they say about bouquets and brickbats?
Was the Board of Control for Cricket in India too quick on the draw when it came to appointing Gambhir as Dravid’s successor? That can only be answered with the benefit of hindsight. For long, the BCCI was under the impression that VVS Laxman, the NCA boss, would happily step into the hot seat vacated by Dravid, though the Hyderabadi had been least inclined to do so from a year before Dravid’s term ended. Gambhir came with promise, if not coaching pedigree (he was the mentor at Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders). He must now quickly effect a turnaround in the most unforgiving of all cricketing lands, Australia, for that promise to translate to something more tangible.
