Gautam Gambhir Criticism, IND vs SA Test Series: Gautam Gambhir has found himself under immense pressure after India’s shocking defeat against South Africa in the first Test, well inside three days in Kolkata on Sunday.
The Indian team face a threat of suffering yet another Test series defeat at home. The results in the Test format under head coach Gambhir haven’t been impressive.
While India aim to bounce back to at least level the two-match series with an improved performance in the second Test in Guwahati, the former captain Sourav Ganguly feels that there isn’t any need as of now to think about the possible sacking of Gambhir as the team’s head coach. “There is no question of sacking Gautam Gambhir at this stage,” he said, praising both the coach and the captain for an “exceptional” performance in England.
“Gautam as a coach and Shubman as a captain did exceptionally well in England on good batting pitches, and I firmly believe that they can do well in India as well,” he concluded.
Amid all the talks after India were bowled out for 93 runs in their second innings while chasing the 124-run target, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Ganguly made an explosive revelation in the pitch controversy, narrating how the BCCI curators took over the pitch four days before the start of the match.
“No, no, I don’t get involved at all,” he told India Today when asked if his opinion and expertise were sought by the Indian team management before the nature of the pitch was finalised. “Curators from the BCCI come and take over the wickets four days before the Test match. We have our own curator (Sujan Mukherjee) as well, who’s done exceptionally well for a long time. The requests are made, and you keep the requests. That’s what it is.”
The pitch faced a lot of criticism from fans as well as the former cricketers due to its nature of heavy spin and uneven bounce right from the first day of the match. Ganguly went on to mention that the Indian team deserves a better surface to bat on.
“It was not the greatest, I’ll have to completely admit, and I think the top-order batting, the middle-order batting, you know, deserves a better cricketing surface. It was a full house at Eden Gardens for those three days, and I completely believe that Gautam Gambhir and his team in India must play on much better wickets than what they played at Eden Gardens,” said Ganguly.
Even Sujan Mukherjee, the Eden Gardens curator, said that he simply followed the instructions given to him by the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian team management.
“Sometimes it is beyond our control, and we try to keep the request of the team and the coach, and the captain. And that is what we do, so that’s what it is. And you’ve heard Gautam Gambhir say after the game that he wanted that sort of a pitch and was given that sort of a pitch. So you keep the captain and the coach’s request,” he added.