Kumar Bahukhandi
Gautam Gambhir – Photo : PTI
Gautam Gambhir was made the head coach of the Indian team in July 2024. Since then, Team India has played nine Test matches, in which India lost five matches and won three. One match was a draw. Apart from this, India also had to face defeat in the ODI series against Sri Lanka.
The Indian team is currently on a tour of Australia, where the five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy is going on. Team India has lagged behind 1-2 in this series. Big players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are seen struggling with their form. Head coach Gautam Gambhir is also not happy with the poor performance of the Indian players. A PTI report on Tuesday revealed that Gambhir now has time left till the Champions Trophy. If the team’s situation does not improve, action can be taken against him. Gambhir gets ultimatum A BCCI official told news agency PTI on the condition of confidentiality, ‘One Test match is yet to be played and then there is the Champions Trophy. If the performance does not improve, Gautam Gambhir’s position will also not be safe. It is worth mentioning that the Champions Trophy will be organized in a hybrid model. Apart from Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will host this tournament. The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently released the schedule of the upcoming tournament. The tournament will start from February 19 while the final will be played on March 9. There will be 15 matches in this tournament of eight teams. All the group stage matches of the Indian team will be played in Dubai. At the same time, the matches of the rest of the teams will be played in Pakistan itself. This tournament will last for 19 days.
Gambhir is not able to coordinate with the players
Gautam Gambhir was made the head coach of the Indian team in July 2024. Since then, Team India has played nine Test matches, in which India lost five matches and won three. One match was a draw. Apart from this, India also had to face defeat in the ODI series against Sri Lanka. This report further states that before Gambhir, there used to be communication with the players during the tenure of Rahul Dravid and Ravi Shastri. But now Gambhir is not in agreement with most of the players of the team. At the same time, questions have also started arising about Rohit Sharma. In fact, while talking on the issue of selection, the Indian captain had said that he talks to the players individually, but after Gambhir took over, Rohit has not clearly told some of the players who are not juniors why they are being kept out of the team.
‘Gambhir was not the first choice as coach’
It is believed that if the condition of the Indian team does not improve till the Champions Trophy, then the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) can take a big decision on Gambhir. The BCCI official said that Gambhir was never the first choice for the post of coach, there were discussions to give this responsibility to VVS Laxman in his place. He said- He was never the first choice of BCCI (VVS Laxman was) and some well-known foreign names did not want to become the coach of all three formats, so he was a compromise. Obviously there were some other compulsions too.
