IND vs SA: Should Gautam Gambhir be removed as India head coach?
Since Gautam Gambhir became the head coach, the Indian team has seen several changes. Team India is currently undergoing a transition phase, especially in the Test format, which is consistently reflected in the team's performance. Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravichandran Ashwin, like legendary cricketers, have announced retirements while the Indian Team is currently playing under Shubman Gill’s captaincy.
Under Gambhir’s coaching tenure, India has suffered a couple of home test match defeats, including a 0-3 series loss against New Zealand and a loss in the recently played first test match against South Africa. In between, India defeated Bangladesh and the West Indies, like lower-ranking test sides at home. While on away tours, India lost 1-3 against Australia and drew the series 2-2 against England. Under Gautam Gambhir, the Indian team has played 18 test matches so far, in which India lost 9 games.
Recently, India suffered a 30-run defeat against South Africa in the first Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, after which Gambhir has been facing continuous criticism. His critics are even demanding that he be fired as coach. However, former captain Sourav Ganguly breaks his silence on these demands to sack the coach. He stated that Gambhir should continue as coach since everything will work itself out eventually.
Following the match defeat, a lot of questions were raised about Eden Gardens’ pitch, which became totally spin-friendly from Day 1. Ganguly said that the pitch curator prepared the wicket after receiving requests from team management. Well, Ganguly denies all the allegations about Gautam Gambhir’s sacking as the head coach.
“No, no, there's no question of sacking Gautam Gambhir at this stage, but I think as a team, they need to get together and say to themselves that we will work hard to win Test matches because on flat pitches, it's a lot harder because the opposition will pad, and there'll be big runs scored in the first innings of each team. And in India, surprisingly, you'll see how the game changes quickly on day four, day five," he said.
The defeat in Kolkata has once again exposed the persistent flaws in India's Test cricket approach at home, including poor batting on turning pitches and an over-reliance on spin-friendly pitches. The former captain stressed that India should rely on its bowling depth rather than focusing too much on excessively turning pitches. He cited India's impressive performance in England as proof that Gambhir and Captain Shubman Gill can guide the team well on proper Test pitches.
“So they have to be patient on that. As I said, they have the bowling attack to get 20 wickets, as you saw at the Oval on the last day, as you saw in Edgbaston during that series (vs. England), so they can do that as well. Swing comes into play in India with the ball getting old. So it's just a mindset change," he added.
And you know, Gautam as a coach and Shubman as a captain did exceptionally well in England on good batting pitches. And I firmly believe that they can do well in India as well," Ganguly concluded.
After losing the first test, the Indian team is eyeing a bounce back in the upcoming cricket match of the ongoing 2-match test series, which will be played in Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati on November 22.
