Nowadays, Gautam Gambhir’s name is quite synonymous with a no-holds barred press conference. In the aftermath of India downing South Africa to seal the three-match ODI series 2-1, the home side’s head coach once more directed his diatribes at someone. This time around, it was a certain IPL team owner who came under scrutiny.
“God knows what all things were said when we lost the Test series to South Africa and half of them were not even related to cricket,” Gambhir told reporters.
He continued by saying, “IPL ke owner ne bhi likkha split coaching ke bare mein (even an IPL team owner wrote about split coaching). Hum kisi ke domain mein nahi jate (I don’t get into someone else’s domain), so it’s important that people stay in their domain.”
It didn’t take much of a guessing to gauge who Gambhir was referring to. A while back, Parth Jindal, the Delhi Capitals owner, had tweeted, “Not even close, what a complete thrashing at home!” he wrote on X after India’s 408-run loss to South Africa in the second Test. India were whitewashed 0-2 in the Test series.
“Don’t remember seeing our Test side being so weak at home!!! This is what happens when red ball specialists are not picked. This team is nowhere near reflective of the deep strength we possess in the red-ball format. Time for India to move to a specialist red-ball coach for Test cricket,” he noted.
Gambhir also observed that Shubman Gill’s neck injury during the Eden Gardens Test was the main reason for the home team hurtling to a defeat in the opening game. “When we lost the first Test by 30 runs, a lot of things were said about pitch, conditions and what not, but not a single word was spoken about our captain not batting in two innings. He scored nearly 1000 runs this year and to miss a batter like him on a difficult wicket was always going to be tough,” he said.
For more updates, follow the REVSPORTZ app.
