Performance of coach Gautam Gambhir (Photo: PTI)
Gautam Gambhir as Head Coach: Why is this happening under the coaching of Gautam Gambhir? Why is Team India making unwanted records one after the other under his coaching? The just concluded ODI series against New Zealand also became a witness to the same unwanted records in the name of Team India. The Kiwi team which had a habit of coming to India and leaving after losing the ODI series, this time also changed its habit. New Zealand tasted the taste of defeating Team India for the first time in an ODI series on its soil. However, this is just the latest example of the failure faced by Team India after Gautam Gambhir became the head coach. Such a defeat or failure which India had not faced on the cricket field for years, but now has happened, the record book of head coach Gautam Gambhir now seems to be filled with the pages of such stories.
How much time has passed since Gautam Gambhir became the head coach?
The appointment of Gautam Gambhir as the head coach of Team India was announced by BCCI on 9 July 2024, in which it was told that he will take over from the white ball series against Sri Lanka starting from 27 July 2024. Gautam Gambhir had replaced Rahul Dravid as the head coach of Team India. Now, if we look from July 27, 2024 till the end of the recent 3-match ODI series against New Zealand, then it has been 1 year, 5 months and 22 days since Gambhir became the coach. That means his tenure has completed 17 months and has entered the 18th month. Now the question is, what was the condition of Team India during this period?
Long list of failures in Gambhir’s coaching
After 540 days of Gautam Gambhir becoming the head coach of Team India, now Team India has less success and more failures in its kitty. Especially those failures which shock the hearts of cricket fans and that is because the script of most of them has been written at home, on their own ground.
Let us start counting the failures in Gambhir’s coaching from the recent ODI series that ended against New Zealand. In this, Team India suffered a big blow on 3 fronts, due to which the hearts of Indian cricket fans were broken. First, India had to face defeat against New Zealand in the home ODI series for the first time. Second, for the first time, India lost to New Zealand in the decider of an ODI series. Third, India lost for the first time in an ODI played in Indore.
Gautam Gambhir’s failures in coaching started with his acceptance of this role. Gautam Gambhir’s coaching career started with the ODI series against Sri Lanka. But in the very first test of his coaching, he had to become the victim of an unwanted record. Something happened with Team India on the cricket field which had not happened for 27 years. The Indian team had to lose the 3-match ODI series against Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years. Further, under Gambhir’s coaching, the shameful figure of Team India losing 30 wickets in a 3 ODI series for the first time and not winning even a single ODI in a calendar year after 45 years was also added.
It is not that after Gautam Gambhir became the head coach, the series of shameful records of Team India stopped till ODIs only. It spread its foot in Test cricket also and there too what was not seen happening started happening. For example, Team India lost the home test against New Zealand after 36 years. After that, we also lost a Test series at home for the first time. Meanwhile, Team India lost its first Test match at Chinnaswamy Stadium after 19 years and also got bundled out within 50 runs for the first time in a home Test.
Under the coaching of Gautam Gambhir, Team India also faced many more failures and unwanted records in Tests. For example, for the first time a target of less than 200 could not be chased in a home test. For the first time, India had a clean sweep in a home test. For the first time, Team India missed playing the WTC final. Team India became the first team in the world to face defeat in the Test even after 5 batsmen scored centuries. Apart from this, for the first time in back to back calendar years, India has also faced whitewash under the coaching of Gambhir.
Multination tournament record reversed compared to bilateral
There are some other stories of failures in Gambhir’s coaching and most of them are bilateral. The only good thing is that Gautam’s story in the Multination Tournament has not been as serious as it is seen in Bilateral. Gambhir has so far won one ICC title for Team India under his coaching. In such a situation, better performance can be expected from Team India under him in the upcoming T20 World Cup.