Gautam Gambhir: An ordinary report card despite team’s stirring show

The sight of a taciturn Gautam Gambhir jumping into bowling coach Morne Morkel’s arms as soon as India clinched the memorable win at The Oval on Monday was one for the ages. The head coach must have been a relieved man at having escaped unscathed on this occasion, but it will not be an exaggeration to say that the team rode a sequence of superhuman performances to take a number of tactical blunders in their stride and return undefeated from the series.

‘’We’ll win some, we’ll lose some…but we’ll never surrender. Well done boys!” Gambhir posted on X after Mohammed Siraj turned the match on its head in the first hour of the final day. It’s all a question of ifs and buts but had the series ended 3-1 in favour of England despite there being very little to choose between both the sides, the coach’s swagger would have looked misplaced.

A heartwarming and unexpected result like this helps in brushing several festering problems under the carpet, but it would be living in denial to gloss over the fact that this was only Gambhir’s third win as Test coach in the last 13 matches under him.

India have now failed to win their last three Test series: New Zealand at home, and England and Australia overseas, while the only series win came before that against Bangladesh at home. It’s not that India have always covered themselves in glory against the SENA countries on away tours, but the coach’s lack of vision and knee-jerk selection decisions were difficult to miss.

Despite propagating a theory of fearless cricket, Gambhir’s selection of the playing XI (not sure how much of a say the prolific but young captain Shubman Gill had) seemed batting-heavy and overtly defensive. In every match, it was the top order which bailed them out but the coach consistently played at least two allrounders, which meant India were often short of the firepower to claim 20 wickets in a match.

During an interview with National Herald on the eve of the series, Farokh Engineer — legendary wicketkeeper and resident of England for over half-a-century — insisted that India must think out of the box and make room for Kuldeep Yadav in the XI for primarily two reasons.

One, England batters are known to be succeptible against wrist spin and two, a spinner of his quality was a must as a dry summer was on the cards. The summer was certainly dry by England standards, but Gambhir’s stubborn ignoring of the Chinaman bowler was baffling.

Even in the final Test, India struggled despite setting England up for a record chase of 374 at the Oval and the hosts looked in complete control at 330/4 going into the final session of Day 4. This is where the magical Siraj and the much maligned Prasiddh Krishna came to the party by pushing their bodies to the brink. By selecting Jadeja and Sundar as the primary spin options throughout the series, India denied their fast bowlers the support they so desperately needed.

Gambhir’s selection calls made life difficult for Gill as in Manchester for the fourth Test, Gill couldn’t trust Shardul Thakur — India’s fourth seamer — enough. What’s more, the inexperienced captain often placed little faith in his spinners, who were picked more for their batting depth than bowling, and one can talk about occasions when they should have been brought into the attack.

Despite picking an extended squad for the England series in view of workload management, India failed to identify a settled XI throughout the series. Young speedster Anshul Kamboj was a case in point and even chief selector Ajit Agarkar cannot ignore the responsibility of a curious case of hire-and-fire. After performing impressively in the tour games, Kamboj was sent home and told his services weren’t required, while Harshit Rana was retained instead.

However, after strong criticism from fans and experts who saw a bias in Gambhir (as Rana shone under him for Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL), Rana was eventually sent back on the pretext that he was merely an injury cover and not needed. Ironically, Kamboj was recalled during an injury crisis in the eleventh hour before the fourth Test at Old Trafford, but failed to raise his game on time.

Kamboj, who bowled an opening spell at 125 kmph, was immediately cast aside as someone unsuitable for international cricket. Young Sai Sudharsan, pitchforked to the vital no. 3 position at Headingley, was dropped after a single game. Karun Nair, who made his comeback at no. 6 in this series, was pushed to no. 3, axed after the third Test, but again brought back for the final one at The Oval where he scored his only 50 of the series.

If there are is one area that Gambhir certainly deserves accolades, it’s his courage of conviction of trying to shed the superstar culture in the team. However, on a scale of 10, he would barely score pass marks despite his boys coming out with flying colours.

And that's quite an irony!