Everything is not alright between India captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Gautam Gambhir and it has been causing all the woes for the Indian team in the ongoing BGT 2024-25 Test series in Australia. This claim has been made by former Pakistani cricketer Basit Ali on his YouTube channel.
India had won the first Test of the series in Perth, as Rohit Sharma had missed due to the birth of his second child. Jasprit Bumrah had led from the front as India won the Perth Test by a massive 295-run margin.
Rohit Sharma returned to captain the side in the second Test in Adelaide and India crumbled badly in both innings and lost by 10 wickets.
India’s difficulties in the ongoing Border Gavaskar Trophy deepened in the Brisbane Test when Rohit Sharma’s choice to bowl first backfired and Australia raced to a large first-innings total.
Thanks to Travis Head and Steve Smith’s centuries and their 241-run partnership and Alex Carey’s quick knock of 70, Australia posted 445 runs in their first innings. Their innings came to an end on day three and India’s Jasprit Bumrah led the bowling charts with a six-wicket haul, his second in the ongoing BGT series.
“Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir are not on the same page”- Basit Ali
However, Indian batting failed once again, as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Rishabh Pant fell for single-digit scores. India ended day 3 on 51/4 with KL Rahul (33*) being the lone fighter for the Indian team.
Reviewing the Indian team’s performance in the BGT 2024-25 thus far, former Pakistan batter Basit Ali concluded that India’s woes are majorly due to Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir not being on the same page.
“Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir are not on the same page, be it the one-day tournament in Sri Lanka; Bangladesh, which was a weak series; or the New Zealand series after that,. In the second and third (Tests), they (Rohit and Gambhir) are not on the same page, like Rahul Dravid was. He and Rohit were on the same page,” Basit Ali said on his YouTube channel.
Gambhir was appointed the head coach after Dravid’s tenure ended following the T20 World Cup in June earlier this year.
“I can explain it very easily. In all three Test matches, a different spinner played. In two Tests matches, they batted after winning the toss, but here they chose to bowl. There are three left-handers in the Australian batting….So why not (Washington) Sundar and why not (Ravichandran) Ashwin? Anybody who understands cricket will definitely talk about it,” he added.
While India used off-spinners in the first two Tests, Sundar in Perth and Ashwin in Adelaide, the team management chose left-armer Ravindra Jadeja as the only specialist spinner in the eleven for Brisbane.
Basit also questioned India’s decision to bowl first at the Gabba, which was partly due to the rain and cloudy weather on the first day, which saw only 13.2 overs of play.
“Was the decision to bowl first right? I think it was not. The Indian team is only dependent on Bumrah. The rest of the bowlers are not performing like they should. If I say it’s Bumrah vs Australia, that will be right. Similarly, it’s Travis Head vs India…Neither Rohit, nor (bowling coach) Morne Morkel and (chief coach) Gautam Gambhir are able to solve this problem.
India don’t have a left-arm fast bowler in their squad. That’s a weak link. We have seen Mir Hamza or Shaheen Shah Afridi accounting for Head because that’s a different angle. That’s why, if you see, Bumrah bowls round the wicket to Head,” Basit analyzed.
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