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Bastion falls as SA deal India record home loss
Among India coaches, only Duncan Fletcher, whose win percentage was 33.33 after 17 loses, 13 wins, 9 draws from 39 Tests, has a worse record. But even Fletcher’s loss percentage was only 43%, lower than Gambhir’s
India’s reputation as Test cricket’s final frontier, one that few countries have scaled, was dealt a telling, perhaps final, blow after South Africa inflicted a 408-run defeat on the country — India’s highest ever in terms of runs — in the second Test at Guwahati on Wednesday. South Africa won the series 2-0, their first series win in India since 2000 and India’s third whitewash loss at home after New Zealand won 3-0 last year.
India have now lost five of their last seven home Tests, a record that stands in stark contrast with the previous five home defeats that came in 50 Tests across 13 seasons. The loss also left India coach Gautam Gambhir facing questions about his future — his Test record now stands at a well under-par 7 wins, 10 defeats and 2 draws in 19 matches for a win percentage of 36.82. Tellingly, his loss percentage is over 50%.
Among India coaches, only Duncan Fletcher, whose win percentage was 33.33 after 17 loses, 13 wins, 9 draws from 39 Tests, has a worse record. But even Fletcher’s loss percentage was only 43%, lower than Gambhir’s.
In the post-match conference, Gambhir proffered the usual cliches losing coaches do — “playing against a top-quality side”; a team in “transition” — and refused to say anything about his own future except that “it’s up to BCCI”.
This result also means India’s chances of reaching the World Test Championship have become slimmer, as they now stand fifth on the table with 48.15% points.
Chasing 549 was out of question on a worn out fifth day pitch so all India needed to do was apply themselves and earn a face-saving draw. But off spinner Simon Harmer’s 6/37 spun South Africa to a memorable win as India crashed and burnt once again on a track that wasn’t unplayable.
Only Ravindra Jadeja offered some resistance, scoring 54 in the process before he was stumped by Keshav Maharaj. It left India finishing the series without an individual hundred for only the third time in history, the previous two coming against New Zealand in 1969-70 and 1995-96 respectively.
It won’t be lost on anyone that between the home defeats to New Zealand and the start of this home season, India have witnessed the retirements of greats like Ravichandran Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.While the departures have been amicable, it has been clear for sometime that Gambhir has very definite ideas on how the team has to be remade.
Shubman Gill took over the captaincy before the tour of England that India drew 2-2 but his unavailability in this series after injuring his neck in the Kolkata Test probably had the greatest impact on India’s batting fortunes. Still, India had enough depth and skill to avoid this loss — at least on paper.
On the field though, India’s batters averaged only 15.23 in the two Tests, the second-lowest for them after 12.42 on the 2002-03 New Zealand tour. The highest they have scored in this series was 201, making it only the fourth instance in their bilateral Test history that India couldn’t even score 250 in an innings.
The chief orchestrator of this rout was Harmer, whose precision and guile earned him 17 wickets at an average of 8.94. India had trouble against pace as well, with the tall Marco Jansen taking 12 wickets at 10.08.
On Wednesday, starting the day with two wickets down and looking to chase over 500, the odds were against India but at least the pitch wasn’t as tricky as Kolkata. And since only a few months ago India ground their way to a draw at Manchester, chances of an encore weren’t ruled out. Those chances looked brighter when nightwatchman Kuldeep Yadav and B Sai Sudharshan seemed to get a hang of the conditions with a mix of pluck and some luck. Sudharshan was dropped once and dismissed off a no-ball, but he failed to exploit those reprieves. Dhruv Jurel’s inexperience at this level showed and stand-in captain Rishabh Pant did what he usually does. And once Washington Sundar — easily India’s best batter across both Tests — was caught at slip, there was only one way this Test was heading.
The white-ball leg of this tour will start soon but Gambhir said that India can’t afford to sweep these results under the carpet.
But it wasn’t clear how accountable he held himself to be.
“...just blaming the players or just blaming the support staff or just blaming certain individuals will not help,” he said.
But just who is to blame isn’t clear in a country with the world’s richest cricket board and its most profitable T20 league.
