"The results speak for themselves"- Sunil Gavaskar delivers blunt verdict on Gambhir Gambhir's coaching after New Zealand series whitewash
Former Indian opener Sunil Gavaskar provided a blunt assessment of new head coach Gautam Gambhir by saying the results paint the picture themselves. Team India have suffered multiple embarrassing defeats already in the three months since Gambhir took over as head coach.
After a 3-0 win in the T20Is in Sri Lanka, the Men in Blue shockingly lost the ODIs by a 0-2 margin. Gambhir's stint in Tests began well with India crushing Bangladesh 2-0 at home.
However, one of India's worst-ever series losses followed when they suffered a first home Test series whitewash (more than two matches) to New Zealand.
When asked to review Gambhir's coaching stint thus far, Gavaskar told India Today:
"The results speak for themselves. Even in Sri Lanka, India lost an ODI series after a long time. And now here, it's a loss, it's a terrible loss. So, I think the results speak for themselves."
He also blamed the entire think tank for several tactical errors during the New Zealand series.
"I think every team has a think tank. Probably the captain, vice-captain and the coach -- these are the guys who take the decisions. That's how it goes. Sometimes, the captain makes snap decisions at the last moment. May be, he will decide to promote someone to bat higher up the order. If it works out, it becomes a great decision. If it doesn't work out, it looks bad. I think these decisions would have been taken by the think tank," added Gavaskar.
After a questionable decision to bat first on a seam-friendly pitch in the opening Test in Bengaluru, India also made several tactical errors in terms of selection and pitches for the next two matches.
"Got to be due to the thinking that India needed to win and qualify for the WTC final" - Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar feels India went for turning pitches in the second and third New Zealand Tests with the assumption of dominating the visitors on such wickets. Yet, he highlighted that with Jasprit Bumrah in the lineup, India should have gone the opposite route and prepared pacer-friendly tracks.
"I think that's got to be due to the thinking that India needed to win and qualify for the WTC final. And the thinking of the change-room would be that the only way we can win is by preparing pitches, which will turn from day one despite having, by all accounts, the best new ball bowler in the world in our team - Jasprit Bumrah. He's the best new ball bowler in the world," said Gavaskar.
He added:
"I mean, just about every every cricketer you know everybody who follows the game of cricket will say that he is the best new ball bowler in the game today, so we should be preparing pitches which will help him, actually. Then you have somebody like Akash Deep, who will also look good. With New Zealand, it's bowling attack, with the greatest of respect, they're not the kind of bowling attack that you know Indian batters should be succumbing to."
While Bumrah picked up three wickets in the opening Test, he went wicketless on a turning wicket in the second Test. The final Test was also dominated by the spinner as the pacers combined to pick up only four out of the 40 wickets.
Yet, the move backfired as the Indian batters came apart against the turning ball and New Zealand's left-arm spin twins - Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner.