After facing a series of defeats against Sri Lanka and New Zealand, Team India`s head coach Gautam Gambhir is under immense pressure just after his appointment. He was appointed to the top post amid much fanfare and was also given a rare seat at the selection committee meeting for the tour of Australia.
Gautam Gambhir has been given a free hand in the selection matters. After his appointment as captain, Team India lost an ODI series against Sri Lanka for the very first time in 27 years. Recently, New Zealand registered a series sweep against India in India, which was something unexpected.
While the coach can do only as much, questions are now being raised about the lack of prudence on display by going for a rank turner in Mumbai despite knowing that the top-order has time and again failed in the last six to seven years against quality spin bowling on wickets offering decent turn. Even Gambhir`s philosophy of playing the same way, come hell or high water, is something that those associated closely with Indian cricket have failed to fathom.
Sending pacer Mohammed Siraj as a nightwatchman in the final Test against the Kiwis and Sarfaraz Khan batting at number eight in the first innings are some of the highlighted things which are being questioned by everyone.
Gautam Gambhir was given access which his predecessors Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid didn`t have.
The BCCI`s rule book doesn`t allow coaches to be a part of the selection committee meetings, but for the Australia tour selection meeting, an exception was made. “The head coach was allowed to attend considering the magnitude of the tour,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.
Delhi pacer Harshit Rana and Andhra Pradesh all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy are included in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy squad only on the demand of Gautam Gambhir.
However, Rana wasn`t given any white-ball game in either Sri Lanka or during the home series against Bangladesh. It was reported that he was released before the last match as he was unwell but within a week, he was back bowling in the India nets in Bengaluru. And then, he had a good Ranji Trophy outing against Assam.
There was a school of thought that believed Rana, rather than featuring in the Ranji Trophy, could have been sent to Australia with the India A team as playing one or two first-class games on bouncy tracks there would have allowed him to hit the right length before the Test series.
Instead, he was turned into a net bowler for the just-concluded Test series in which two of the three tracks were rank turners. Coming to Reddy, he got into a tangle while facing a short ball in the `A` game and his bowling, which is certainly not good enough to be among the main five bowlers, has also raised concerns.
Impressed by Nitish Kumar Reddy`s skills, Gautam Gambhir believed that he could be an ideal choice as the replacement of Hardik Pandya.
The Australia series will be an acid test for Gautam Gambhir as he might have to also become the harbinger of doom for some senior players and show them the mirror as the board watches his moves from the sidelines. The whitewash has also put the maverick Delhi man under the lens.
(With PTI Inputs)
