India’s 10-year reign over the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) came to a bitter end after their series defeat to Australia in Sydney. The loss also shattered India’s hopes of reaching the World Test Championship (WTC) final, with Australia booking their Lord’s ticket to fight it out against South Africa. While fans and pundits have been quick to criticize the players, legendary cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has directed his frustration elsewhere—squarely at the Indian coaching staff led by Gautam Gambhir.
“What are coaches doing?” Gavaskar questions Gambhir
In a fierce critique of the Indian team’s management, Gavaskar did not hold back when addressing the role of the coaching staff in India’s recent failures. He pointed out that under Gambhir’s coaching tenure, India has lost six out of their last ten Tests, a worrying trend that cannot be ignored.
“What are the coaches doing? We were all out for 46 runs against New Zealand. It was then that we understood the condition of the team’s batters,” Gavaskar remarked. “So what did the coaches do before the Australia series? Why hasn’t there been any improvement? Why shouldn’t this question be asked to the coaches? The performance of the coaches should also be judged,” Gavaskar, who scored 10,122 Test runs for India, said while speaking to Star Sports.
One of Gavaskar’s primary concerns was the frequent changes made to India’s batting order during the series, which he believes hampered the team’s consistency. “The coaches did not plan how to handle good bowlers. They have changed the batting order. Now it seems that instead of changing the batting order, the coaches should be changed,” Gavaskar said.
Bumrah the only one; other lacked support
With players like KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma being shuffled around the order, Gavaskar argued that the instability contributed to India’s poor performances. He suggested that the team’s preparation and planning were inadequate, especially against top-quality opposition like Australia. Jasprit Bumrah carried the load for the entire series until his body gave out on a series-defining day. He claimed 31 wickets, winning the Player of the Series. But he lacked enough support. Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna—nobody came close to Bumrah’s magic.
“What did Gambhir do in last 6 months?”
Gautam Gambhir took charge as head coach of the Indian team in July last year, bringing in his own team of assistants. Ryan ten Doeschate was appointed as assistant coach, Abhishek Nair as another assistant coach, and Morne Morkel as bowling coach. Only fielding coach T Dilip was retained from the previous setup that involved Rahul Dravid as head coach, Vikram Rathour as bowling coach and Paras Mhambrey as bowling coach.
However, Gavaskar believes the new coaching team has failed to deliver. “Everyone is blaming the batters. They are being questioned. I think the coaches should also be questioned. What have you done in these six months? They will have to answer this,” he added.
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