India vs SA: Burning questions that coach Gambhir needs to answer

The knives are out for Gautam Gambhir as Test coach, irrespective of the outcome of the ongoing Test against South Africa in Guwahati. In the nearly one-and-a-half years that Gambhir has taken over, it’s the longer format where he has been found wanting, though the performance graph in white-ball cricket is still at a high with the ICC Champions Trophy back on the shelf after a long gap.

The question that begs to be answered is whether everyone — from fans to the media to TV pundits — are being fair to Gambhir, whose perpetual gripe was not getting his due despite playing a big hand in India winning the 2007 World T20 and 2011 ODI World Cups.

The buzz was that, tasked with the job of carrying out a transition in Indian cricket in collaboration with Ajit Agarkar, Gambhir was instrumental in the sudden retirement of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma from Tests, after the shocker from Ravi Ashwin in Australia.

Add to that the air of arrogance he maintains in dealing with media — which has not earned him many friends — while the reality is that some of his cricketing decisions have been confusing and counterproductive. We take a look at four of them:

Thin on specialist batters

The ongoing Test series against South Africa saw India playing only three specialist batsmen in both matches, a direct impact of Gambhir’s preference for allrounders in both formats. This resulted in openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and K.L. Rahul figuring in both Tests, while captain Shubman Gill played the first and Sai Sudharsan played the second due to his captain’s injury.

The decision to depend on allrounders, right from the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy in England, to ensure that the team bats deep, proved to be neither here nor there. For all the chat about playing fearless cricket and also plans to remove the team's 'superstar culture', India's gameplan looked insecure even in England, though individual brilliance proved a face-saver on that occasion.  

Batting order: One experiment too many?

It’s been thanks largely to Gambhir’s adventurism that a well-set batting line-up of even a year ago now wears an unsettled look. It seems no one is ‘safe’ except the two openers and Gill at number four, leading to unwarranted tinkering with the crucial number three spot — once occupied by men of substance like Rahul Dravid since the turn of the millennium, and then Cheteshwar Pujara.

In Kolkata, Washington Sundar batted at three as a specialist batter, while Sai Sudharsan was given the same slot in the second Test. Karun Nair also tried the role earlier in England, but no one has been given consistent backing.

It’s to the lanky spinning allrounder Sundar’s credit that he managed to hold his own in five different positions (3, 5, 7,8 and 9) in six Tests under Gambhir as coach and still averaged 54. Washington’s off-spin bowling, which brought him to the team in the first place, has certainly taken a hit as he only bowled one over in the entire first Test.

There is also confusion regarding number five, where Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel and Ravindra Jadeja have all been tested. Earlier, this position was strong, with the likes of V.V.S. Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Ajinkya Rahane manning it.

Who’s the lead spinner?

If India had a field day in home Tests from 2013-23, it was due to Ravi Ashwin leading the pack with Ravindra Jadeja for company and Axar Patel entering in the later stages. Kuldeep Yadav, the wrist spinner and mystery bowler who could keep the batter guessing, was in and out of the team.

There is now a vacuum in terms of the leader of the spin pack, with Jadeja mostly doing the containing role and certainly nowhere near generating the sense of awe which Ashwin managed to do. ‘’Back in 2015, when I came with the team, Ashwin was bowling like a jet and it was difficult for a rookie off-spinner like me to match up,’’ South African off-spinner Simon Harmer said at Eden.

Washington was preferred over Ashwin during the Australia tour, but could not continue his performance. The problem Jadeja may be facing is that there seems to be a lack of guidance that the likes of M.S. Dhoni and Kohli once provided with their inputs. Is it time for the team management to look at domestic talents like Sai Kishore, Saransh Jain and Saurabh Kumar who are waiting on the sidelines?

Allrounders not delivering

The recent trend of swapping a spinning allrounder for a seaming one, depending on the surface, has been falling flat on most occasions. Sundar and Axar have contributed with the bat but failed to take enough wickets. Jadeja is picking up wickets, but his batting form has dropped in Asian conditions.

There is an urgent need for a relook at Reddy’s utility, though Gambhir took him to Australia on the basis of his IPL heroics and he duly stunned all with a fighting century at Melbourne. Since then, he has neither scored runs nor bowled effectively at home, being unable to inspire enough confidence in the captain to get enough overs.

Another series loss at home after the New Zealand debacle is not going to make India’s job any easier as it looks to qualify for the 2027 WTC final. It’s going to be a long gap before it plays Tests again in Sri Lanka next year, but there’s plenty to ponder for Gambhir & Co.