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WHEN ROHIT Sharma took over India’s captaincy last February, after a tumultuous end to Virat Kohli’s reign, the legendary Sunil Gavaskar was among those who expected much from him. Since then, India failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup final in Australia, lost the World Test Championship final, and did poorly in a Test series in South Africa.
The series of reverses has left Gavaskar disappointed with Rohit’s captaincy and he has also asked for more accountability for the coaching staff of Rahul Dravid, Vikram Rathour and Paras Mhambrey.
Speaking at The Indian Express Idea Exchange earlier this week, Gavaskar said, “I expected more from him (Rohit). In India it is different, but when you do well overseas that is really the test. That is where he has been a little disappointing. Even in the T20 format, with all the experience of the IPL, hundreds of matches as captain, with a mix of best IPL players not being able to get to the finals has been disappointing.”
The former Indian skipper also wanted to know if a proper review of India’s losses was done by the selectors and BCCI. Talking specifically about India’s World Test Championship loss to Australia last month, he said coach Dravid and captain Rohit should have been asked to explain the decisions they took.
“They should be asking questions, ‘Why did you field first?’ Okay, it was explained at the toss that it was overcast and all. The question after that should be, ‘You didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball?’ Why was the bouncer employed only when he had scored 80 runs. You know, the moment Head came in to bat, in the commentary box, we had Ricky Ponting saying, ‘Bounce him, bounce him.’ Everyone knew about it but we didn’t try.”
After the WTC loss, Rohit Sharma spoke about the lack of preparation and how in an ideal world a team would need 20 days of preparation. Gavaskar did not buy that argument. “What kind of preparation are we talking about? Now they have gone to the West Indies. You have the example of the World Test Championship before you. Are you playing any matches? So what is this talk about 20-25 days? … When you talk about preparation, be genuine about it. Go 15 days before, play two warm-up matches. The main guys can rest, but the fringe players might be actually challenging those who are not doing well. He does not get an opportunity to show that he is good enough.”
India’s Rohit Sharma leaves the field as Australia declare their second innings at 270 for 8, on the fourth day of the ICC World Test Championship Final between India and Australia at The Oval cricket ground in London, Saturday, June 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Gavaskar puts the blame on the senior players’ reluctance as they are assured of their spots. “The truth is the main guys do not want to go early. Because they know that come what may, they will get selected. And when you go early they will talk about the workload. You call yourself the fittest team in the world or fitter than the early generations then how do you break down so soon? How do you have a workload issue when you play a 20-over game?”
The first batsman to cross 10,000 Test runs also raised the question of accountability for coaches. While batting coach Rathour has continued from the previous Virat Kohli– Ravi Shastri regime, bowling coach Mhambrey started his stint under head coach Dravid.
“If the batters are making the same mistakes over and over again, you need to ask what has happened with your technique. How have you tried to improve the batter? Have you tried to tell him, maybe take a different guard. Don’t take a leg-stump guard, take a middle and off stump guard.
“I remember once calling Virender Sehwag out of the blue. He had not been scoring too many runs. I told him, ‘Viru, just try the off-stump guard’. So he asked, ‘Why, Sunny bhai?’ So I told him, ‘Look, you aren’t known for great footwork. What is happening is, sometimes when you are getting out, you are reaching out for the delivery and it makes things difficult for you. So, maybe if you take the off-stump guard, you straight away know that the ball is outside the off-stump’. That is where the coach can come in with his inputs.”
In a recent interview to The Indian Express, Ravichandran Ashwin had said that ‘earlier, team mates used to be friends, now we are just colleagues’. Gavaskar believes that to be the most telling statement about the team environment.
“It’s a sad thing because you should be able to get together after play ends and maybe not talk about the game but talk about music, maybe talk about the films you like, maybe talk about your interest in space. But if that is not what is happening, that is disappointing. Having said that, the new thing that started 20 years back or longer is that every player gets a single room. That too can be a factor …”
As a commentator Gavaskar has been at the grounds for almost all games played by India, at home and abroad, available to the batsmen for any consultation on batting. Has anyone approached him in the past 5 to 10 years?
“No, no one has come. Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman regularly came to me. And they would approach me with a specific problem and you could tell them something which you had observed,” he said.
“I don’t have an ego about this, I could go and talk to them but since there are two coaches — Rahul Dravid and Vikram Rathore – so sometimes you hold back since you don’t want to confuse them with too much information.”
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