Manchester Test: Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir at odds?
The decisions at play in the ongoing fourth India vs England Test has the fraternity in a knot. With India struggling against the hosts with the cherry, spinners have presented the much-needed breakthroughs. However, the same spinners appear to be playing the role of a second fiddle to the pacers. Ravindra Jadeja, who has picked two wickets, is bowling shorter spells. Washington Sundar, appearing in the attack as late as the 69th over, has bowled only 19 overs, scalping two wickets. The bowling rotation has brought massive scrutiny for the Indian captain, Shubman Gill. A latest admission by the Indian bowling coach, Morne Morkel, however, suggests that Gill is solely leading the decision-making in the Manchester Test.
Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir not on the same page about the use of spin in the Manchester Test?
Day 3 of the Manchester Test wrapped up with England piling up a 186-run lead over the guests. First Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, then Joe Root and Ollie Pope, followed by Ben Stokes partnering Root, the English batting lineup has annihilated India with multiple impactful partnerships. With his 150-run knock, Joe Root cruised seamlessly against the Indian attack, surpassing Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis, and Ricky Ponting to become the second-highest run-scorer in Test cricket.
Amid the crushing dominance of the England lineup, India witnessed spinners Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar bringing much-needed respite. However, their roles have been kept needlessly short in Manchester. Sundar etched his credibility as a reliable spinner with his 4-fer in the Lord's Test itself. However, it took as many as 68 overs for Shubman Gill to introduce the spinner in Manchester. Even after a twin strike to remove the well-set Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, Sundar earned only 19 overs to bowl.
Naturally, Shubman Gill fell to scrutiny for his tactical calls in the contest that has slipped out of his team's grasp. In a media interaction following the end of the day's play, India's bowling coach was grilled on the under-utilisation of Sundar at Old Trafford. The former Protean shifted the onus to Gill. The bowling coach confirmed that it was entirely Gill's call to keep Sundar's role limited in the contest.
“Shubman made the call to stick longer with the seam options. In the first couple of days, we saw the ball was seaming and moving around. Pace on the ball was the way to go. Then, when we got our opportunity to bowl, we missed our lengths. When he got the opportunity with ball in hand today, Washi did a great job for us,” said Morkel.
Meanwhile, former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has highlighted an inconsistency in India's working as a unit. The former cricketer questioned whether Gill is solely responsible for making such calls. With the kind of experience that the Indian head coach, Gautam Gambhir, holds, it puzzled Manjrekar that he didn't advise Gill against what transpired in the Manchester Test. Moreover, Manjrekar also suggested that senior teammates like KL Rahul and Jasprit Bumrah would not have stood in agreement with Gill's plan to avoid using his spinners.
“Can we assume that these decisions were taken solely by Shubman Gill? At this stage of his career, you’d expect him to get some inputs… or considering he has done so well as a batter, everybody has withdrawn, saying ‘this guy is getting into the zone’,” Manjrekar said. “Because I can’t see everyone agreeing to this kind of move. Bumrah, KL Rahul, or a Gambhir thinking Washi should not be bowled… come what may,” he added.
