Former cricketer-turned-commentator Simon Doull feels Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as a head coach could be cut-short, if the Indian team doesn’t perform well in the BGT 2024-25 against Australia.
Recently, Gambhir has come under fire after an away ODI series loss to Sri Lanka and 3-0 series whitewash against New Zealand at home soil. It was the first occasion of New Zealand winning a test series in India, thus making the series defeat more surprising for the cricket fraternity and fans.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former England captain Mike Atherton asked Doull for his thoughts on Gambhir-Ponting controversy. Ponting had expressed concern for Virat Kohli’s form, but felt the former Indian captain will be back to his best in BGT. Irked by Ponting’s comments, Gambhir questioned whether Ponting had anything to do with Indian cricket, and expressed confidence in veteran batters Kohli and Rohit Sharma returning to form in BGT.
Doull feels if India continues their lackluster performances and Gambhir continues to engage with media in a hostile manner, his tenure will be shorter than Greg Chappell. The former Australian batter coached the Indian team from 2005-2007, a two-year term, which was filled with controversy, Chappell-Ganguly feud and Men in Blue’s early exit from ODI World Cup.
Doull said:
“It could be a shorter tenure than Greg Chappell’s tenure in charge of India. We have all either play alongside him or sat with him, we know he can be that gruff type of character. Is it what India need at this moment? Well, they certainly feel they do. He has the history and the backing to be able to sit down with those players and talk to them about how to play the game and how Test cricket works.”
But it’s a tough ask, and its a huge series coming up. He’s never going to be friendly with the media, but if he embraced it a little more, he could end up having a bit of a cult following. But not sure he’s going down that road. And if he doesn’t get the results in Australia, or its a 4-1 or 5-0, I don’t know if his job continues,” he added.
Yash Dayal replaces Khaleel Ahmed in India’s BGT squad
As per a report by PTI, Yash Dayal has been slotted in place of Khaleel Ahmed in India’s 18-man squad for BGT against Australia. Khaleel was among the reserve players along with Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini for the series.
However, the 26-year-old is said to have sustained an unspecified niggle, rendering him unable to bowl. As a result, Dayal will now have an opportunity to feature in the game, if any of the pacers is injured or is unavailable.
Dayal was also part of the recent India-South Africa T20I series, but didn’t play any of the games. The series saw India prevailing over the Proteas with a scoreline of 3-1.
