The pressure on the current head coach of the Indian team, Gautam Gambhir, has been huge, especially on the back of their first home Test series defeat against England in the 2012/13 season. They have also now lost two consecutive home Test matches for the first time since that period.
The two defeats have marked a very poor start in the coaching tenure of Gautam Gambhir in the longest format of the game. Since the former head coach of India, Rahul Dravid, left his position magically, having earned their second T20 World Cup title in 2024 against the West Indies and the United States of America, there was speculation about who would be the suitable person to take the Blue Brigade forward.
Thanks to his aggressive manner and a purple patch in the recent Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), where they claimed their third title of the tournament, the former left-handed opening batter of the side was shouldered the responsibility.
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The beginning for Gautam Gambhir in the role was quite extraordinary as under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, they cleanly swept Sri Lanka away from home with a margin of 3-0. But when the seniors returned to the side after spending a decent break from the World Cup campaign, they were stunned by the 2-0 series defeat.
Ravi Shastri backs Gautam Gambhir to come good in the future red-ball series
India started their home season against Bangladesh, where they quite comfortably got the better of the Tigers in the opening game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, thanks to their quality all-round performances. The captaincy of Rohit Sharma and coaching of the Delhi-born was applauded when the two-time runners-up showed a different version of their game in gaining victory during the second Test in Kanpur.
But once they lost to New Zealand and ended a drought of 36 years for the visiting side and were bundled out for just 46, the third-lowest inning total of the team in the format, the pressure got over the head of the former World Cup winning player of the side.
This resulted in the management being asked to go with a slow and low turner in Pune. India didn’t bowl well in both innings of the game, but a poor show with the bat in the first innings, where they offered a lead of over 100 runs destroyed them.
As soon as the final wicket, Ravindra Jadeja, who tried to nail the bowler out of the park, fell, the former head coach of the Indian team, Ravi Shastri, who was on commentary at that time, came in support of Gautam Gambhir, claiming that it won’t be easy being a coach of the side that has such a big following.
“New Zealand have beaten them (India) handsomely in both the Test matches. It’s food for thought. He (Gautam Gambhir) has just taken over the job. It’s never easy being the coach of a team that has such a big following. It’s still early days in his career as a coach. But he’ll soon learn.” The former spin all-rounder for India expressed during the commentary.
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The two defeats have made it a huge task for the Blue Brigade to confirm their qualification in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023-25, as they look forward to facing Australia down under in the five-match Test series of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25.
The third and final game of the series will be played between India and New Zealand from November 01 at the iconic Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
