SYDNEY: Gautam Gambhir was sitting at the press conference room of the Sydney Cricket Ground. It had been only a few minutes since Beau Webster and Travis Head let out a roar in the middle of the pitch after beating India to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 in front of a packed pink crowd on Sunday.
The head coach had addressed the media for the first time on this tour only three days ago. And when he did, he only added fuel to the speculations that had been doing rounds since the loss at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. So when he walked into the room after India lost by six wickets in two and a half days, there was a bit it unease in the air. He’s been known to have been confrontational with the media. And it was the theme on Sunday as well. He was asked about the mistakes India made to lose the series after taking a 1-0 lead in Perth as the first step towards addressing them is acknowledging there is one. The response: “The first thing is that the person sitting here will accept the mistakes first. So you don't worry that mistakes will not be accepted here.”
He went on to add that India had their moments where they could have won the series especially if they had drawn in Melbourne and had five bowlers in Sydney — Jasprit Bumrah did not take the field for bowling on Sunday as he had back spasms. He admitted that there is room for improvement in all three departments. It had been the kind of series where everyone often went “can we have one normal day?”. Right from Perth to Sydney, not a single day of Test cricket was uneventful. Whether it was Rohit Sharma’s batting position or his captaincy or his form with the bat or him opting out of Sydney or Virat Kohli’s dismissals or Bumrah’s injury or the biggest of all — R Ashwin’s retirement — it was a series that had it all. And in the end, the better team won.
Although the focus had been on India’s on-field performance and tactics and senior players’ failure, youngsters’ success, the head coach and his support staff — Abhishek Nayar, Ryan ten Doeschate, Morne Morkel and T Dilip — who will be under the lens over the next couple of months. Four months ago when Gambhir addressed the media ahead of his first Test as coach in Chennai, he was asked about the brand of cricket this team would take going forward. “I've always been a believer that the best style is the style that wins and we want to be a team that adapts and learns quickly, rather than adopting one style,” he had insisted in September last year.
The results do not reflect the same. From the time Gambhir took over — the white ball tour of Sri Lanka — India have lost six of the ten Tests they have played, drawing just one. The two wins came against Bangladesh at home. Even in ODIs, India lost a series to Sri Lanka after several years. Gambhir did not travel to South Africa for the T20Is and the other series win in the shortest format was against Bangladesh at home. A lost home Test series after 12 years was followed by another defeat Down Under — India’s first Test series loss to Australia in ten years. “It has been tough. Absolutely no doubt about it. It's been really tough and obviously, these weren't the results that we were expecting in the last eight Test matches but that is what sport is all about. All I can expect from that dressing room is to keep fighting and all we all can do is to be honest and keep fighting. Keep doing the right things. It's a result-oriented sport and we all play for results,” he said when asked to reflect on what has been a rough ride so far.
While it is true that results haven’t gone India’s way, Gambhir did not get into specifics of the why. He said it is about temperament, commitment, and about putting on big scores in the first innings. It is something India haven’t been able to do throughout this tour. They were able to post 250-plus totals only thrice in five Tests tells the story. That is despite extending their batting depth to compensate for the out-of-form top-order. A point that is less talked about.
Though it is no fault of theirs — Nitish K Reddy has been outstanding, Mohammed Siraj had to bowl long and hard spells more often than he would have imagined, and Harshit Rana played two Tests, but he was not as effective as India would have liked him to be— that India played two all-rounders instead of a fourth seamer or another frontline bowler in the later stage of the series perhaps did not work. It meant Bumrah had to pull the workload he had to with little support and relief from the other end. That day four of the Melbourne Test was perhaps the last straw. He bowled ten overs on day two here in Sydney and then walked off, falling short of what could have been record-breaking figures in a Test series.
Make no mistake Bumrah has had a series others would dream of. But in prioritising batting depth — India played two spinners in Sydney where Nathan Lyon bowled six overs — they might not have given themselves the best chance at winning. It is just one of the many things India did not get right. While Rohit took the blame, and rightly so, standing down from the Sydney Test, what to make of the coaching staff and how they have not been able to produce the desired results is something the BCCI would be thinking about in the coming days.
There might not be any hurried decisions. India still have an ICC tournament to play next month. But just like how one cannot say for sure how the team looks when they leave for England in June, the same might just be the case of at least the support staff depending on how the next couple of months go. India might win the Champions Trophy and go into the England tour with a very similar set up. Or they could have a complete overhaul. Either way, a lot will be discussed and debated as the BCCI gets together to review the result and then pick the squads for the white-ball series against England at home. And among them would be Gambhir’s tenure so far and how it takes things forward.
