Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh feels Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir is under pressure ahead of Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia. The crucial five-match test series is set to begin from November 22 in Perth, with both teams trying to maintain their dominance in the WTC standings.
In Gambhir’s debut assignment, India secured a 3-0 T20I series whitewash against Sri Lanka. However, the side lost 2-0 to Sri Lanka in the ODI format. Thereafter, India overcame the challenge of Bangladesh by securing a 2-0 test series clean sweep on their home soil.
However, India suffered a devastating 3-0 test series whitewash at the hands of New Zealand. The series saw India losing all games of the series involving three or more matches for the first time. The players and coaching staff were blamed for the team’s lackluster performance, with criticism of Gautam Gambhir being the key talking point.
In an interaction with Jatin Sapru, Harbhajan thinks it’s not right to put blame on Gambhir for India’s test series loss, and feels he needs to be given time to produce results. However, he thinks Gambhir’s plan to have rank turners in Pune and Mumbai failed badly, as the Black Caps dominated them in all aspects of the game.
Further, the 44-year-old opined that the Australia series will be vital for Gambhir’s future as an Indian head coach. He said:
“It is difficult to run big teams, everyone takes time. If the results were fine, everyone would have said ‘see, Gautam is making the team win’. The series against Australia is important, a lot of things will be tested. Gautam Gambhir who will be sitting outside, his anger and patience will be tested.”
The Indian team needs to win the series 4-0 to maintain their place in the top two spots in the WTC standings to qualify for the championship game, set to be played next year.
Sourav Ganguly defends Gautam Gambhir for his press-conference controversy
Gautam Gambhir appeared at the pre-departure press conference ahead of the Australia tour last week. Gambhir responded in a strong manner to Ricky Ponting expressing concern for Virat Kohli’s bad form ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Gambhir said during the press conference:
“What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should think about Australian cricket. We have no concerns about Kohli or Rohit. They have achieved a lot for Indian cricket and will do so in the future as well.”
In a recent interaction with RevSportz, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly defended Gautam Gambhir. He feels the cricket fraternity were praising Gambhir after he mentored the Kolkata Knight Riders to a title victory in IPL 2024, but are now questioning him after recent losses.
“Let him be. I saw some criticism of what he said in the press conference. It is the way he is. Let him be. When he won the IPL, he was the same. You were going gaga over him. Just because he has lost three Test matches and a one-day series against Sri Lanka, the straight talk has not been looked at nicely. But that is the way he is.”
