Up to BCCI to decide my future as coach: Gautam Gambhir

Calls to relieve Gautam Gambhir of his Test coaching duties have been gaining steam for some time, and are expected to intensify after India's humiliating 2-0 drubbing by South Africa on Wednesday. Confronted with the unpalatable question during the media conference after the 408-run ambush in Guwahati, Gambhir left the ball in the BCCI’s court.

‘’It’s up to the BCCI to decide. I said it in my first press conference when I took over as head coach last year that Indian cricket is important, I'm not important,’’ a visibly distraught Gambhir said. ‘’I sit here and say exactly the same thing. And yes, people keep forgetting that I'm the same guy who got results in England as well with a young team. I'm the same guy under whom we won Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup as well.’’

After being there and doing that as a two-time World Cup winner, captain of a two-time IPL winning franchise and now national coach, Gambhir is aware that public memory is short and called for "collective responsibility" from all stakeholders — team members, support staff and even media. One could also hear shouts of ‘Go back, Gautam’ from the smattering of spectators gathered to watch India hurtle to another collapse to be all out for 140 while chasing a mammoth 549.

Incidentally, the Indian team has notched up two dubious distinctions under Gambhir’s regime — collapsing to 46 all out against New Zealand last year and the 408-run defeat now, the highest margin of loss in terms of runs.

‘’Look, in the series against New Zealand, we had a very different side and this is a very different side. I’m sure you guys cover a lot of cricket and I’m sure when you compare this batting line-up to that batting line-up, the experience that they had compared to this one is chalk and cheese. So comparing everything to New Zealand is probably a wrong narrative,’’ he said.

Replying to National Herald's query about whether the buck needed to stop with his batters as they managed to cross 200 only once in four innings in two Tests, Gambhir agreed without appearing to do so: ‘’Yes, we need to apply better. At one stage in the first innings, we were 95 for one but to slip to 120 for seven is not acceptable. We’ve had these collapses in the past as well. Someone needs to put their hand up and say I’m going to stop this, stop this whatever you call it, the collapse. For me, that is something as it was a 30-minute spell that obviously took us away from the game as well.’’ 

While the inexperience of the current middle order may be fact, stand-in captain Rishabh Pant came in for a lot of flak when he committed hara-kiri of sorts in the first innings by stepping out for a one-handed slap shot off Marco Jansen which ended up in the hands of the wicketkeeper. Asked about it, Gambhir said: ‘’Look, I expect better from everyone. I expect better from myself to everyone in that room. I'm not going to sit here and say that I expect something better from one individual.

Urging cricket authorities to "prioritise Test cricket", Gambhir made a veiled reference to the team's cramped schedule. ‘’Look, obviously scheduling does make a difference. Imagine only three days back before the start of the first Test match, we were in Australia. And suddenly you come back from there and you have to join a Test team and you have two days to plan with the Test side.

‘’We can have more gaps in the middle so that we can probably start working on certain skill sets. Because working for two days on a certain skill set where we always knew they had quality spinners was a challenge,’’ he added.