Gambhir advised to tread carefully, stick to his decision after Kohli, Rohit retire: 'He becomes the most important now'
With Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli having retired from Tests, the onus is now on Gautam Gambhir to prepare an Indian team for the future.
Much like the case 12 years ago, Indian cricket, especially the Test team, finds itself at the crossroads. The era, the pillars that helped India thrive over the last decade and more, have stood down. Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin have all retired; Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav are no longer in the picture. Ravindra Jadeja is the last remaining chip off the old block. To a certain extent, even Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah are, but it's obviously not the same.
The transition phase is here. With Gautam Gambhir as head coach, India will usher in a new direction in the new World Test Championship cycle, starting with a five-match series against England, of which none of the superstars from the past will be part. This means that the ball is now entirely in Gambhir's court. With an eye towards the future, the road ahead will be full of youngsters attempting to fill the void left behind by these legends.
Shubman Gill is likely going to be the next Test captain of India, with Rishabh Pant his deputy. Pant, already a Test great with successes in Australia, South Africa and England, is the perfect foil to Gill. He may not have enjoyed a great tour of Australia, but this is where Gambhir's role becomes all the more crucial. He has his blueprint ready, and with the chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar in the same boat, Gambhir's part in this whole thing is the most crucial of them all, reports The Times of India.
"Gambhir becomes the most important person here. He has to give confidence to the players. The first thing he needs to do is understand the new captain, the vision he has and the brand of cricket he wants the team to play," Saba Karim, the former BCCI national selector, told TOI.
"Gambhir has clear ideas about how he wants his team to approach a game. But he needs to be the man who empowers players and creates leaders in the team. I'm sure he will back someone like Rishabh Pant, who hit a rough patch in Australia, and give him more confidence on the upcoming, tough tour of England," said another former national selector, Devang Gandhi.
Batting isn't India's only concern
With Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rishabh Pant being the only guaranteed picks in India's Test XI, the likes of Abhimanyu Easwaran, Sai Sudharsan, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel and more can knock on the selectors' doors. However, batting isn't the only concern. Fast bowling required equal attention. Mohammed Shami's fitness has cast a shadow over his future, and Bumrah's tryst with injuries is well documented. In the mid 2010s, under Kohli, Ravi Shastri and Bharat Arun, India assembled a five-prong pace attack capable of taking 20 wickets anywhere in the world, and Gambhir needs to ensure he and the rest of his coaching staff don't drop the ball on this one.
"Those bowlers, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, were identified for the longer run. They initially struggled to bowl out opposition batters even overseas. But the idea was to zero in on a pool of bowlers and keep working with them. Credit must go to Kohli for turning things around when he decided to play five bowlers in Tests. That regulated the workload of the pacers and became a metric going forward. Similarly, if you have identified the likes of Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Arshdeep, then stick with the pool," added Karim.
