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Who should be made accountable for India’s 3-1 loss to Australia? What was the net gain of dropping India’s Test captain Rohit Sharma from the playing XI in the Sydney Test? Shouldn’t coach Gautam Gambhir’s lack of performance be reviewed for India’s loss to New Zealand and now to Australia Down Under? What is the back-up plan? Where is the transition plan?
As Indian cricket grappled with finding quick-fix solutions to put the house in order, former Indian cricketer and a member of Delhi’s cricket advisory committee Surinder Khanna, who is known to speak on issues which others generally avoid talking about, was furious with the end result in Australia.
“What we know for sure is that the dressing room atmosphere was toxic. What was the point of dropping Rohit when you couldn’t win the Sydney Test?” Khanna ji, as he is affectionately called in the Delhi cricket circuit, asked.
Gambhir had a spat with Rohit on three occasions – when he asked the captain to play the Test series from the very beginning, telling him to opt of the series as a captain after the opening Test match win in Perth and give it Jasprit Bumrah and eventually dropping him in the fifth Test because of a contentious point in the dressing room.
“That wasn’t good for the dressing room. Even Gambhir’s performance as a coach should be reviewed along with Rohit’s. Even the support staff from the Kolkata Knight Riders who Gambhir got should come under the scanner,” Khanna suggested.
Rohit is trying his best to hang to the hot seat and is even banking on the players’ support to corner Gambhir in the meetings lined up with the BCCI bigwigs. However, it seems like the BCCI officials are backing the coach rather than the players.
Explaining this, Khanna said: “That is why Rohit had to come out and do his PR on Day II. He also got a few others from the team and outside to support his cause. Generally, action speaks louder than words. In Rohit’s case, there is less action and more words.”
Barring Jasprit Bumrah and Yashasvi Jaiswal, none of the Indian players could play consistent cricket. “Virat Kohli was a big disappointment, primarily, because he found only one particular way to throw his wicket away,” Khanna said while adding that the Sydney pitch was also a damn squib and not deemed fit for a proper Test match due to constant undulation.
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