Blaming players, support staff won't help, says Gambhir

Accountability starts and stops with the captain or the coach in competitive cricket and so Gautam Gambhir was asked if he would step down in light of India’s second series sweep defeat to South Africa after New Zealand last year.

- Somshuvra Laha

To that, Gambhir said it’s up to the BCCI to decide. “I said it in my first press conference when I took over as the head coach. Indian cricket is important, I'm not important.”

What he said next though gave an expected twist to the narrative. “Yes, this is a team which has less experience. And I've said it before as well, that they need to keep learning and they're putting everything possible to turn the tide.”

While there is no denying that the transition of the Test team has been quite rough, with R Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retiring, India have always found ways to counter it with more dignified cricket in the past. 2013 never felt this tectonic even though Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar had retired in the space of a year. A home series was lost to England in 2012 but at least India didn’t have a problem scoring. This transition however, is taking a serious toll on India’s home record. Gambhir has a simple solution to that—improve and prioritise red-ball cricket.