Gautam Gambhir’s appointment as Rahul Dravid’s successor in July was greeted with much fanfare and enthusiasm. Head coach Dravid had left behind a settled and high-quality outfit that had made the finals of both the World Test Championship and the 50-over World Cup and ended an 11-year wait for an ICC trophy at the T20 World Cup in Bridgetown towards the end of June.
The feisty former India opener didn’t have any coaching credentials, though he had donned a mentoring role at Lucknow Super Giants for two seasons and then at Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024, when the team he led to two titles in 2012 and 2014 crowned itself champion for a third time.
Personality-wise, Gambhir is far removed from the suave, sophisticated, diplomatic Dravid. Having made his name as a scrapping, street-smart batter, cricketer and captain, one wasn’t sure how he and Rohit Sharma would hit it off. Dravid and Rohit had a tremendous relationship based on mutual admiration and respect, and the knowledge that they had each other’s backs. While they might have differed on certain issues ideologically, they presented a united front once they talked things out, and there was a cohesion, continuity and clarity that reflected in the team’s performances.
It’s inevitable that comparisons would be drawn with one’s immediate predecessor in any role. Dravid himself was subjected to that phenomenon after taking over from Ravi Shastri, who had outdone himself on the long, arduous and Covid-overshadowed tour of Australia in 2020-21. Gambhir’s challenge was to sustain the winning momentum and oversee what would inevitably be a tricky period of transition, particularly in Test cricket where there is no substitute for experience.
The 43-year-old’s honeymoon period lasted exactly one series, the T20I leg of the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka in July-August when India thrived on disastrous home collapses to complete a 3-0 sweep under new skipper Suryakumar Yadav. The bubble burst the following week; chasing modest targets on square turners, India came up short for three matches in a row in the ODIs. The first ended in a tie, they were well beaten in the next two. It exposed India’s vulnerability against the turning ball. Worryingly, many of the regulars in the Test batting line-up – Rohit, Virat Kohli, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant – were part of that ODI set-up.
The message was clearly not heeded. After a customary dismissal of Bangladesh to kick off a gruelling Test season, India were undone by spin of middling quality – with due respect to Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel – in the second and third Tests in Pune and Mumbai respectively. Gambhir was a terrific player of the turning ball, quick on his feet, secure in defence, soft of hands. He also had great powers of concentration, which allowed him to bat long periods without losing focus. Maybe he thought the current lot possessed these same traits though evidence over the last few years suggests otherwise, one of the reasons why the five-Test series against England which India won 4-1 was played on good, true surfaces.
Scrutiny rises on Gambhir
A 0-3 defeat to New Zealand at home, the first time ever, and a first home series loss in 12 years should have increased the scrutiny on the new head coach, but Gambhir has almost flown under the radar. While it can’t be denied that he has had numerous public – and one imagines many more private – conversations with the batting group, the repeated implosions suggest that whatever message he is espousing hasn’t hit home. Agreed, a coach is only as good as his team and he can’t play for his wards, but such is the nature of competitive sport that if one is credited for the good, then the not-so-good is also accompanied by the not-so-creditable.
Since addressing the team’s pre-departure press conference in Mumbai on November 11, Gambhir hasn’t fronted up to the media. That’s become a feature of this team – Virat Kohli hasn’t addressed a press conference since September 2022, Rishabh Pant has been unavailable since his international return in June. Perhaps they have other means of communicating with their fans and therefore believe press-dos are redundant, but maybe it also helps them avoid potentially tricky questions.
There was no clarity on Gambhir’s tenure when the announcement of his appointment was made by the BCCI. The word is that his term will run till the end of 2027, which means three more years in the job. His immediate challenge, after the New Year’s Test in Sydney, is the Champions Trophy in February-March and a five-Test tour of England, potentially with new personnel, from June. Results there will determine what the future holds for Gambhir, transitory phase or not.
