India head coach Gautam Gambhir has come under the scanner for his fiery response to Australian legend Ricky Ponting’s comments on the decline of star batter Virat Kohli.
Commenting on Kohli’s extended lean patch, Ponting had suggested that any other player with only two centuries in five years would not have survived in the team.
When media asked for his reaction, Gambhir termed Ponting's opinions on Indian cricket irrelevant and also advised the latter to focus on Australian players.
“What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should think about Australian cricket. I don't have any concerns. They (Kohli and Rohit) are incredibly tough men; they've achieved a lot for Indian cricket and are going to achieve a lot in future as well," Gambhir had said during an interaction with the press before leaving for Australia.
Gambhir's remarks weren't received well by the Australian cricket fraternity and former cricketers from New Zealand and England have also taken a brutal dig at India head coach.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former England skipper Mike Atherton asked ex-Kiwi pacer Simon Doull about the recent Gambhir-Ponting episode and the latter could not control his laughter.
Doull suggested that Gambhir’s tenure as head coach could turn out to be shorter than Greg Chappell's if India suffer a 1-4 defeat or a whitewash in Australia.
“It could be a shorter tenure than Greg Chappell's tenure in charge of India. We have all either play alongside him or sat with him, we know he can be that gruff type of character. Is it what India need at this moment? Well, they certainly feel they do. He has the history and the backing to be able to sit down with those players and talk to them about how to play the game and how Test cricket works. But it's a tough ask, and its a huge series coming up. He's never going to be friendly with the media, but if he embraced it a little more, he could end up having a bit of a cult following. But not sure he's going down that road. And if he doesn't get the results in Australia, or its a 4-1 or 5-0, I don't know if his job continues,” Doull said.
Former England cricketer-turned-commentator Nasser Hussain sympathized with Ponting as he labelled Gambhir's remark as “odd dig”.
“It's a complete flip because they went from Dravid, who was more affable on the outside, but tough as nails inwardly, while Gambhir is angry on the outside and quite calm in the dressing room. But it was an odd dig at Ricky, who was only asked to comment on Virat, and now has been told to speak only on Australian players. That will be a tough ask as a pundit in an India-Australia series,” Hussain stated.
India have won the last two Test series on Australian soil. However, the situation is a lot different this time around as they are coming into the series on the back of a 0-3 whitewash against New Zealand at home.
Under Gambhir’s coaching, India lost three successive Test matches in Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. This outcome also marked the end of their remarkable streak of 18 consecutive home Test series victories.
The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is slated to get underway on November 22 in Perth and the action will then shift to Adelaide (December 6-10), where both teams will face each other in a Day-Night Test. The last three Tests are set to take place in Brisbane (December 14-18), Melbourne (December 26-30), and Sydney (January 3-7).
