Gautam Gambhir became the new head coach of the Indian cricket team on 9th July 2024 before India toured Sri Lanka for the T20I series, which India won by 3-0, but in the subsequent ODI series, India lost against Sri Lanka 0-2. The India team bounced back with a 3-0 T20I series win and a fantastic 2-0 Test series win against Bangladesh. It seemed then the Gautam Gambhir era had begun in Indian cricket. However, the Indian team suffered a shock 0-3 defeat in the next home Test series against New Zealand, followed by a 1-3 defeat in the away Test series against Australia.
The atmosphere in the Indian dressing room has changed drastically over the last few weeks. Here are the top five controversies emerging from the Indian team in the Gautam Gambhir era.
1 Gautam Gambhir picks Morne Morkel and Ryan ten Doeschate in his coaching staff
He chose Abhishek Nayar as batting coach, Morne Morkel as bowling coach AND Ryan ten Doeschate as an assistant coach. Picking these two foreign cricketers in his coaching team raised many eyebrows, because in November 2022 Gambhir had commented that only Indian should be the coaches of the national team. In his view, foreign coaches vanished after making money from the BCCI.
2 Suggestion to limit family time on overseas tours
According too press reports, coach Gambhir was frustrated with India’s defeats in series against new Zealand and Australia. Hence, he reportedly asked the BCCI to limit the family time for players on foreign tours, similar to the pre-covid era. As per new rules framed by BCCI few days back, family members can stay with players for a maximum two weeks on a tour of 45 or more days. For shorter tours, the maximum duration for the family members will be one week only. The change in the rules sparked a major debate on social media.
3 Gautam Gambhir addresses dressing room leaks
Soon after the 4th Test of recent Australian tour, a press report claimed that Gambhir was furious with the team and said ‘ Bahut Ho Gaya’ when the batters could not produce match winning performances. This leak created a massive controversy on social media. When asked about the press reports and the dressing room leaks, Gambhir said before the 5th Test “ Those are just reports. That is not the truth. I don’t think I need to answer any reports. There were some honest words, that is what I can say. Honesty is very important, if you want to go and achieve great things.”
4 Gautam Gambhir’s comment on Rohit Sharma’s place in playing eleven
Ahead of 5th Test between India and Australia, coach Gambhir addressed the press conference instead of Captain Rohit Sharma. The skipper did not even spend much time in the training sessions, which raised questions over his place in the team. When asked if Rohit would feature in the playing eleven, Gambhir replied “ We will take the playing eleven call at the toss after looking at the pitch. It is rare to see any coach make such a comment about captain’s place in the playing eleven. Thus, it led to another controversy on the social media.
5 Hardik Pandya’s exit from the leadership group
Before Gambhir joined the Indian team as the head coach, Hardik Pandya was the Vice-Captain in white-ball cricket. When Rohit Sharma retired from t20Is after the T20 World Cup, it seemed like Pandya would be his successor. However Surya Kumay Yadav became the new T20 skipper instead. For the upcoming T20I series against England, the team management has named Axar Patel as new Vice-Captain. Meanwhile, as per the press reports, Jasprit Bumrah is set be named as the new deputy skipper on ODIs for India. It is not clear who made this decision, but the sudden exit of Pandya from the leadership group in the Gambhir era has sparked a huge debate.
Gautam Gambhir was never a team player during his playing days, there had been many controversy around him then. In my personal opinion the selection of him as a head coach may backfire on the BCCI, if the things which are going on for last few months keeps on escalating further. It looks like Gambhir is not getting along with some of the senior players. I recall, when Greg Chapell was head coach of Indian cricket team, he also did not get along with skipper Ganguly, and he single handedly ruined the career of Irrfan Pathan when he emphasized that Pathan should put more focus on his batting than bowling, and he started promoting him in the top order for batting. In the end Irrfan Pathan neither became accomplished batsman, and his career as bowler also suffered badly.
Looking back on Gautam Gambhir’s career for last six months as head coach of Indian team, his performance as a coach has been a let down, as the team which was doing well in all the formats of the game is now struggling.
Let us hope that Indian team will come out of this rut in the near future.
Waiting for your comments/feedback on this blog.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
17th January 2025