Gautam Gambhir is constantly changing the batting order.Image Credit source: PTI
As the head coach of Team India, Gautam Gambhir is currently surrounded by questions and is the target of critics. In his tenure of just one and a half years, Gambhir has won Team India 2 titles in limited overs but the condition of the team is continuously deteriorating in the Test format. After Gambhir’s arrival, Team India has lost 4 Test matches at home in the last 12-13 months, which was very rare a few years ago. There are many reasons for this, but a big reason is Gambhir’s different experiments and the biggest problem is the constant changes in the number 3 position, a glimpse of which was also seen in the Kolkata Test.
In the first Test match between South Africa, Team India surprised everyone by dropping its number-3 batsman Sai Sudarshan. Before that, Sudarshan had been fielded at this position in two consecutive Test series, England and West Indies, and he was considered the future of Team India at number-3. Although his performance was not entirely satisfactory, this was just the beginning for him at the age of 22. But in the Kolkata Test, coach Gambhir dropped Sudarshan and gave this place to all-rounder Washington Sundar.
Constant reshuffle at number 3 position
This is not the first time that there has been a reshuffle in the number-3 batsman in the Test team in recent times. In the last one and a half years, Sundar became the seventh batsman to play in the ‘one-down’ position in the Indian batting order. Yes, since Gambhir became the coach, 7 different batsmen have batted at least one innings at the number 3 position. When Gambhir became the coach of Team India last year, this role was being handled by Shubman Gill, who batted at this number in 7 matches during this period.
During this period, even before Gill became the captain and was fixed at number four, KL Rahul and even Virat Kohli were sent to bat at number three in one match each. Apart from him, Devdutt Padikkal was also fielded in one match and Karun Nair was also fielded once in England. Sudarshan was given a chance in this role for the first time during the England tour and he was seen gaining momentum till the series against West Indies, but now suddenly against South Africa, he was again removed from this role.
Absence of stability like Dravid, Pujara
Continuity and stability in the playing-11 and at least the batting order has always been a major contributor to success in Test cricket. Talking about Team India itself, in the last 25 years, Rahul Dravid at number-3 and Sachin Tendulkar at number-4 kept playing together for a long time. After these veterans, Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli took over this responsibility.
But since Pujara’s exit from the team, the Indian team has not been able to find a solution to this problem. When Shubman Gill was starting to settle down a bit, Virat Kohli announced his retirement and then Gill was given his number 4 position, where he has scored a lot of runs. But number-3 is still not decided and at present, Coach Gambhir’s continuous experiments seem to be confusing the issue instead of solving it.