NEW DELHI: As the Indian team stares at a tough transition following the floundering in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, it has emerged that coach Gautam Gambhir is struggling to stay on the same page with the selectors and the team.
There are strong suggestions that there could be ideological differences in the manner in which Gambhir approaches his job, resulting in the team finding it difficult to adjust to his ways. TOI understands that Gambhir’s communication skills with the team are currently a bone of contention.
Gambhir is known to be strong-headed and a hard taskmaster in his ways when he led Delhi and Kolkata Knight Riders over the past decade. Gambhir’s interactions, it has been learnt, have been minimal and very objective with the players on tour.
“He has let the players be so far. Now, he must take responsibility and come to the fore,” BCCI sources told TOI, “The young players who are missing out even from the XI are not being talked to yet. It could make them doubt themselves. The previous team managements were more empathetic and spoke a lot to the players. The players are still adjusting to Gambhir’s new ways.”
Captain Rohit Sharma, fighting for a place in the XI too hasn’t helped the dressing room. BCCI insiders also pointed to a transformed – and vague – vision in this period of transition.
“There’s no harm in having a vision. But there needs to be a definite one. Gambhir is trying to balance things. In doing so, he is figuring out the players he wants to back. It’s almost like he is still struggling to come out of how an IPL franchise functions. There are proven performers in the team. He is mindful of not disturbing them,” the source said.
“If one goes by the team sheets that the team management has released in the last four Test tours, there are players missing out from featuring in the 15 when they were initially picked as the top 15 players to travel to Australia. It clearly shows there’s a lack of clarity between the selectors and the team management,” the source added.
It must be noted that the selectors gave in to Gambhir’s demand of picking Harshit Rana despite his lack of first-class experience. Rana was not even in the 15 for the last Test at Melbourne. The Indian team has suffered horrid results since Gambhir took charge from Rahul Dravid in July last year.
BCCI sources said that Gambhir has come in with a vision to revamp the teams across formats. It is said that Gambhir is looking at a period of around 18 months to rebuild the team. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar has been in Australia right through the tour to work on a common vision with Gambhir.
TOI had reported on November 20 last year that the team management and selectors would be speaking with the senior players about their future plans. Rohit, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja were on top of the list. But BCCI sources feel Ashwin’s retirement was poorly handled by the team management.
As far as Rohit is concerned, it is unlikely he would be in the Test plans after Australia but whether he announces his retirement when the team is facing such tough times is something up for question. There’s a chance that he may hold the decision for a while to let the dust settle. In such a scenario, Kohli seems to have assumed a leadership role again, being more vocal in the field and frequently addressing team huddles.
There seems to be a lack of faith in the younger generation of players in the way they prepare going into a game.
Performance of support staff to be reviewed by BCCI
TOI has also learnt that the BCCI will review Gambhir and his support staff’s performance after the Australia tour like it was done after India suffered 0-3 defeat against New Zealand in October-November last year.
There are question marks on Abhishek Nayar’s role as a batting coach and the purpose of fielding coach Ryan ten Doeschate when T Dilip has already been doing a good job for the last three years.
