Former India batter Manoj Tiwary has suggested the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to look forward and drop Gautam Gambhir as head coach of the Test team. This comes after India lost the Test series against South Africa by 0-2 on their home soil. The Indian Team has now lost five out of seven Tests played at home and the loss against South Africa was the second consecutive whitewash in one year span. The troubles in Tests have only increased since the three stalwarts – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin retired.
Tiwary, however, did not feel surprised by the outcome of the match, saying that the writing was on the wall as far as Gambhir’s suspect tactics were concerned. He further said now it was time for the BCCI to jettison Gambhir if Indian Test cricket was to be saved from further decline.
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“To be honest, the writing was on the wall. It had to happen. I knew things were not going well; the process they want to follow is not the right strategy or plan. There was a lot of chopping and changing, which was very evident. That could have been in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, home series against New Zealand, and now against South Africa,” Tiwary told Hindustan Times.
“Absolutely. There is no question about it. (whether India should have a separate red-ball coach). It’s high time they take this decision to save Indian Test cricket. That’s the bottom line.”
Following the defeat, Gambhir argued his case by referring to his wins in the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup, besides the Test series draw in England. However, Tiwary was not satisfied with the reasons, claiming that India could easily have lost that series in England too. He also mentioned that Gambhir got an ODI team which was prepared by stalwarts such as Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and Virat Kohli and therefore the credit should be shared.
“Apparently, Gambhir is claiming that he got a series draw in England with a young team. In my opinion, the England series draw was not a great thing for us. It wasn’t a good result; the kind of players we had, it was England who made the mistake of playing too many shots on the last day. They could have easily won the series 3-1. There is no great achievement in his tenure so far,” said Tiwary.
“I saw a clip of him claiming that he has won the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. This team was built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and, before that, Virat Kohli. Even if Gambhir wasn’t the coach of Team India for these two tournaments, India would have won anyway because the team was already made. It is very unfortunate to see a white-ball mentor leading India as a head coach. If you don’t have the experience at the ground level, how do you expect to give results at the top level? It is next to impossible,” he added.
