Despite another home series loss against South Africa — the second whitewash in 12 months — the Board of Control for Cricket in India is in no mood for any knee-jerk reaction. Instead the board will speak to the selectors and team management in the coming days to hear them out. There won’t be any big decisions as well and it is likely that the selectors and team management will go ahead with the same set of players whom they have been backing for a while now.
India might have had a good series against England and defeated West Indies at home a month ago, but the defeat against South Africa was their third in space of year after Gautam Gambhir took charge as head coach. In the last 12 months India have lost Test series to New Zealand and South Africa at home and away to Australia. In between they drew the Test series in England and also had the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup to show in white-ball cricket.
On Wednesday, post the series defeat, Gambhir was asked if he is the right man to continue as head coach in Test cricket. And the former India opener had left it to the BCCI to decide on his future.
“The BCCI will not rush in taking any decision, the team is in a transition phase. As far as coach Gautam Gambhir is concerned, we will not take any decision on him as the World Cup is around the corner and his contract is till the 2027 World Cup. The BCCI will speak to selectors and team management going ahead but there won’t be any knee jerk action,” a BCCI official said.
The Indian team’s tactics in the series has come under sharp scrutiny, especially shifting the batting position of Washington Sundar. Despite having a long batting line-up they failed to put big totals on board and had no century to show in the two Tests. India’s persistence on playing in turning tracks left their batsmen technique exposed.
While any major changes are ruled out, there is a chance of BCCI calling for a meeting at the conclusion of South Africa series to discuss the way forward.
Speaking soon after India lost the Test series in Guwahati, head coach Gambhir repeated several times that he doesn’t prefer giving excuses. But right through the 13-odd minute press conference, Gambhir pointed out several times – a young team, transition phase and also the scheduling as possible reasons for the defeat against South Africa.
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Straight up, he was asked about where the responsibility starts with for the defeat. He shot back immediately in his characteristic style: “Everyone in that dressing room, and starts with me, to everyone in that dressing room. I’m not going to be someone who’s going to say that it lies with X, Y or Z. It lies with everyone sitting in that room as simple as it can get. That is what team sport is all about,” he began the press conference.
Then he quickly went back to the batting in the first innings, in particular on Day 3 where India lost a cluster of wickets to hand South Africa the advantage which they never let go off. “I’m sure you guys must be watching the game. From 95 for 1 to 120 for 7. It’s not acceptable. And we keep talking about the game obviously (against) spin. But then one seamer got four wickets in that phase. And we’ve had these collapses in the past as well. Someone needs to put their hand up and say that I’m going to stop this. At one stage on Day 3, you were pretty much in control of the game. And then from there, to lose 5 or 6 wickets for nothing on the board literally, was always pushing us back,” Gambhir lamented.
