The former captain of the South African side, Ab de Villiers, has made a bold statement on the blunder in the Indian dressing room, as the fresh reports have suggested, during the recently concluded five-match Test series in the Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 in Australia, who went on to win the series by a 3-1 margin.
The reports of Indian Express reported that a senior member of the side has been projecting him as the new ‘Mr. Fix it with the captain of the side, Rohit Sharma, finishing his form under a serious cloud. The Nagpur-born was dropped from the fifth and final Test of the series at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) on the back of his 31 runs in five innings at an average of 6.20.
Ab de Villiers hosted a live session on his ‘X’ handle (formerly known as Twitter), where he spoke about the importance of having a good atmosphere in the dressing room. There were so many claims that a few things haven’t been smooth between the senior players of the side and the head coach, Gautam Gambhir.
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“I know there have been some rumors. I’m not surprised. When there’s smoke, there’s fire. I’ve been part of dressing rooms where it’s been hostile. Especially when you’re away from home, you’re missing your family, and you’re not playing the best cricket of your career.” Ab de Villiers expressed this in the session.
“When there’s smoke, there’s fire”- Ab de Villiers on Indian dressing room
Kohli, the superstar of India’s batting department, was expected to be making his final Test tour down under, but he failed terribly with the bat, having collected only 190 runs in nine innings at an average of 23.75 with the help of the best score of unbeaten 100 runs.
India had a positive start in the series with a 295-run victory at the Optus Stadium in Perth, but things went downhill since that. The veteran batter of South Africa claimed that continuous defeats started to lose faith among each other for the team.
“The dressing room is crucial, especially away from home. It’s easier at home. I do not doubt that the Indian team dressing room might have lost that a little bit over the last weeks in Australia. When you start losing faith in each other, you might as well sit on the sides and hand over the trophy. I don’t have facts about the Indian dressing room. I’ll wait for facts to see who’s been niggling with who!” Ab de Villiers explained.
The former Protea skipper looked back in the past in his dressing room, when they lost two back-to-back series in the longest format in 2006, one in Australia by a margin of 2-0 and then lost at home by a margin of 0-3. That led the players to start questioning each other.
“It’s very easy for bad stuff and bad habits to creep into the dressing room. We also had that against Australia in 2006 when we lost 2-0 in Australia and then lost 3-0 in South Africa. We lost five out of six Tests. It wasn’t sunshine and roses in that dressing room, we were squabbling with each other.” Ab de Villiers flashed back.
“It’s everything in my opinion. That’s the kind of stuff I believed in when I captained teams. For me, it was a non-negotiable. The dressing room needed to be truthful, guys were loyal to each other, there was a great atmosphere and spirit, and we always respected the guy next to us. If you have that, even if you’re losing you still have a good dressing room.” The Pretoria-born highlighted the importance of the fresh environment in the dressing room.
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Ab de Villiers looked back at the lowest points of his career but remembered how they stayed strong in the huddle and more than team-mates, it felt like being among his brothers.
“Some of my lowest lows: like at Eden Park (Auckland) in the semi-finals of the 2015 ODI World Cup. When we realized we were not going to make it to the final after losing to New Zealand, the dressing room was still so tight! We were in a huddle, and I never felt a huddle so tight. I could hardly get my words out. I felt like I had a group of brothers around me. That’s the kind of moments that build character.” Ab de Villiers concluded the interaction.