Ten Test matches in five months. Lost six, drew one and won three, including two against Bangladesh at home. There were T20I series wins against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and an ODI defeat against the latter. There’s a sharp decline in the longest format — highlighted by the first-ever home whitewash against New Zealand — which resulted in a failure to make it to the World Test Championship final despite being in a strong position.
The waning powers of Virat Kohli, uncertainty over Rohit Sharma’s red-ball future, Ravichandran Ashwin’s shocker of an announcement to quit midway through the Australia series and returning to India the next day — there are plenty of things on and off the field that happened in a relatively short period. Team in transition all right, the process has been far from smooth so far. If not anything else, they were playing better cricket not too long ago.
This brings in focus the chief coach. The results mentioned are the output of the team he took charge of last July. The incidents are also from this span of time. There’s no doubt that Gautam Gambhir’s foray into this job has got off to an unpleasant start. Most of the talk is centering around Kohli and Rohit at the moment. The time is not far away when the role of the support staff will also be discussed. The graph started dipping since they took over from the previous set-up.
To be fair to Gambhir, it’s early to judge him. Settling down as the coach of the Indian cricket team can take a bit of time. The Australia tour was going to be tough, irrespective of how India fared against New Zealand at home. The coach was not individually responsible for the third-session implosion in Melbourne. If his team doesn’t click with the bat, can the former opener be accused of failing in his duties? Recurrence of the same ailment might make the answer ‘yes’.
Unlike in football, persons running the teams in cricket are not immediately blamed after a string of poor shows. Football managers are targeted first and subsequently binned if there is no change in fortunes. Cricket coaches are a luckier breed. They usually last longer, even when the going isn’t great. In terms of job durability, they are far better off than their football counterparts.
However, Gambhir cannot escape the spotlight. He is a prominent personality himself, who used to display a strong character on the cricket field. He turned up at the pre and post-match press conferences for the Sydney Test, when, conventionally, the captain does that in at least one of those. The second reason is obvious. The performance of his team.
It’s going to be a tough few assignments hereon for this opener of two World Cup-winning sides. Winning the white-ball engagements against England at home will not fetch bouquets by the dozen, but losing will attract brickbats. Champions Trophy right after that will be a litmus test for Gambhir and the team of assistants he has handpicked. Then, five Tests in the English summer… no respite.
The Champions Trophy is enormous, because not winning it will be considered a failure unless India reach the final. That the team went up to that stage in the last two World Cups and won the T20 title, will be seen as the benchmark. Less than that is unlikely to be treated as satisfactory. The transition theory may not find many takers in that eventuality. Add to that the Test setbacks and it will become a long and unsavoury list.
Gambhir was a feisty fellow as a player. He took pride in representing his country and demonstrated courage with the bat. Things have been turbulent in his second innings so far. Sunil Gavaskar has said on Star Sports that the coaching team is answerable. There is a pool of coaches groomed at the National Cricket Academy waiting in the wings. It’s time to deliver. Gambhir loved challenges in his playing days. He faces a big one in his association with the team in this role.