It is raining cricket, especially with the Champions Trophy later this month, and with IPL starting next month. We have the T20 series in action right now against England, and our recent tour of Australia just behind us. What are the present day cross currents? One has talked around, read a bit, the media has many stories to tell. Talked to a few experts who have their ear to the ground, know many of the players in person, with cricket and the game in focus. Here are some excerpts from what one has gained. It is a team in transition, with younger talent taking over after a period when some great players have dominated and look like getting into the sunset.
The Virat and Rohit factor:
Let us take the Australia tour. What are the two three quick takes? Number one, we lost badly. Why we lost or why we performed so miserably. What went wrong? Experts opine that there are a number of factors. Among them is the contribution of a till recent lead performer, Virat Kohli, who for the last four years, has an average of 24, while the team went on persisting with him. And he’s just not being able to look at the fact that he got out seven times – to a nick outside off. Though, here the issue is bigger. Has he passed his prime? It is suggested that it is very difficult to write an anti-Kohli article because of the trolling that goes on social media. But there is plenty in the public domain. The fact that they’re talking about and they’re not taking a name, but it’s very obvious. It’s all, you know, targeted at Kohli, saying he travels alone, travels with his friends and family in his own charter flight, stays in a separate hotel, does not use the team bus to go to the ground, does not train on optional training days, decides not to go in bat at that time. Is there in him now a part-time cricketer who is a part-time Indian in him, as often he is abroad?
So why should this affect the entire team, you might ask? There’s a leadership role in any cricket team. There is a group of seniors, always. Now go back to 2011 World Cup, you will see that there was a good core that we had with cricketers like Sachin, with Zaheer Khan, there were some stalwarts sitting there in that team who guided and then there were the young boys who were kind of rallying around them, like Virat Kohli, himself among them.
Virat is now playing Sachin’s role after 14 years. But Sachin played it with dignity and the ‘tiranga’ was very clearly; you knew that this is, what he was fighting for. Today, the reality is that because of him having so many endorsements backing him currently, BCCI cannot afford to take out Virat from the game. Also, there are numerous media rights that have been sold for Virat to play. And not to forget the same companies will also lobby with BCCI saying, we have paid one of your cricketers so much money, we want him to be in the team.
Then let’s talk about the Rohit factor. Now, Rohit Sharma is a selfless player, I gather, but again, past his prime. A leader who didn’t come for the first game, then why was the captain changed in the second game? Jaspreet Bumrah bowled and captained in Perth. We won the game, everything went fine. Virat Kohli batted well in that game as well, and we win. Then you took away the captaincy and gave it back to Rohit Sharma, simply because he had come back to play? In the past, when there was any similar case, where the captain hadn’t come for the first match, he actually played under the replacement captain. In here, did they land up creating some bad blood within the team?. If you research further and you really go into a lot of YouTube videos and articles, and a lot of things in the grapevine, which one keeps hearing as well, there are two to three players who are aiming to be the captain. They are waiting for the seniors to go, so that they take over. These names don’t come out, but Jaspreet Bumrah is one of them, and most deservedly as well.
So why are they sticking on to Rohit? They are sticking onto Rohit for experience. Another possibility is that there could be something like a Mumbai lobby that works overtime. There is Agarkar, the current selector and don’t forget that the com box has a lot of say, like having selectors out there, who are really not selectors, but are selectors’ eyes and ears. There is Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjerekar, these are hard core Mumbaikars. And Mumbai is not like Delhi, Mumbai backs each other to the hilt. You will rarely hear Gavaskar say something negative on Rohit.
But why is Rohit unable to salvage his game? Possibly, there is an explanation. Let us cast our mind back to year 2008, when Sachin Tendulkar transformed his game for the first IPL. He didn’t go for the World Cup and we won the World Cup. So, when he came for the first IPL as Mumbai Indians, captain Sachin came and played reverse sweeps, all kinds of new shots in his game. And he bettered his game and his strike rate. He became more aggressive than what he was, in his years of fading.
Rohit Sharma is trying to do that. In the earlier years, perhaps between 2010 and 2020, in that decade, Rohit used to take close to about 15 to 20 balls, before he hit his first six, he would never hit the ball straight away. What he is now starting to do is, he is going bang-bang from ball one, changing his game as per the current requirement for the team. Now, because he’s changing his game at the fag end of his career, that is very tough to do. Your hand eye coordination has gone down. Your athleticism is low. You don’t go to the gym as much anymore. There are many issues with that. And the body doesn’t respond the same way.
What of his statement the other day to say that it’s not the media who will tell him when he should retire? So, does that mean that only he will decide when he will retire? Rumours are that he has been told by certain coaching staff, that he needs to either step down or step up – one or the other. So, he is basically saying, no one can tell me when to go. I will decide when to go, otherwise you fire me from my job. No problem. But you cannot make me retire. That’s all he’s trying to say.
To that extent, he is probably right. Why are you forcing him to retire? You drop him then. There is a deeper side of the business in the game. Money is coming in from Rohit and Virat. Their PR machinery is good, they have become a brand in themselves. There have vocal fan clubs. Advertisers have paid big money. There is too much pressure coming from all angles, not the least from a monetary angle, which people are not reading into.
Summing this bit, therefore, it would appear we are somewhat a fractured team, with no unity. The junior players do not hold the seniors with any respect, seeing the way they perform, and keep hanging on. The team could well be in a limbo. Unity is the number one reason where there are a broken, fractured team. A few are eyeing the captain’s role, don’t forget, which can give rise to factionalism.
In comes, Gautam as coach:
How has Gautam Gambhir’s charge affected the team? Gautam is obviously known for his forthrightness and being India first. So, when you have someone who is India first, you are going to have altercations.
Is Gambhir having problems with the seniors also? Nothing specific has come out but they have camouflaged it. These are inferences. They’re saying the coaching staff and selector and players have different perspectives. What they’ve done is they’ve come up with 10 commandments. Those 10 commandments have come up from the coaching staff. And who is this targeted towards? From the looks of it, looks like Virat Kohli. It is only him who travels by charter, does not take the team bus to the ground, lives separately from the team in another hotel. All this could erode into the team spirit.
But coming back to Gautam again, is he the future coach as you see him to be? The over-riding opinion is that he’s a fantastic coach. He’s converting the Indian team into a team of all-rounders. From the moment he came, he started to make everyone bowl in the team. And he’s got the guts. Now, look at the team, which played against England. The team which played, does not have Subhman Gill, does not have a Yashawi Jaiswal, does not have some big, big guys who could easily be there. They’re not there. He is willing to risk his neck for the game.
To emphasize the all-rounder emphasis, let us relate again to the 2007 and 2011 World Cup that we won. When we won those World Cups, we had a team of all-rounders. Cricket is again moving towards being a game which needs you to sort of display both skills and provide backup. “I think what he’s doing with that is fantastic. In the white ball format, red ball format, we are still figuring our way out. Okay. But in terms of strategy? He has made the India team fearless. Something he’s given them genuinely, given them lot of comfort. You talk to the younger kids, they’re all saying Gautam bhaiya has made us feel comfortable. That is something which a coach needs to do for his players, especially the young boys” said one professional who wishes to stay anonymous.
What about his ego and his confrontational kind of personality? He had the controversies with Virat Kohli openly in the field, but we were told they had been sorted out. Is it repaired, really, one can only conjecture? Maybe. But for Gambhir, the bottom line is also that he is blunt. He’s in the face. That’s his character as a human being. He’s going to tell you what it is, as he sees it.
Is that what a coach is supposed to do? If you talk to the KKR guys who played under him as well, even as a captain, he got them, as the captain, two tournament winning trophies.
And then he coached a third. He’s had three titles under his belt. So, after Dhoni and Rohit, he becomes the third most experienced person within the IPL history also, or Indian history in that format.
“Now, what he does very well, apart from this confrontational thing, is that when somebody comes to him, just in the face, like Robin Uttapa did, when he asked Gautam once, can I open and Gautam said, listen, I’ve hired you at number six. Don’t even come to me. So, that was him in your face till he says, if you give Gautam logic, he gives you that chance. So, when people think that he does not listen, they are wrong. It’s just that he has very fixated thoughts, but he does have an open mind for you to change his thought as long as you have logic. Robin Uttapa convinced him over four matches to make him open. Once Robin Uttapa opened, he always opened after that, until they won the IPL twice. So, he says that you have to know Gautam”, shares another source.
The road ahead: what’s in store?
What is the road ahead? If Gautam is going to stay on as coach, Virat is not ducking, Rohit Sharma is saying that I will keep playing, you drop me if you want. I’m not retiring. And these young boys will see that there is no leadership or no mentorship for them in the field. Then we have to remain a divided team and just carry on?
In T20, the format is now fixed. Surya is now the captain and none of these big boys exist over there. So that format has a clean slate. There’s no baggage we carry. But that is because also the seniors have already retired from T 20. So, they’re out. Now, when it comes to OD aggregate, these two are ready to go. According to some, they’re just waiting for the Champions Trophy to happen later this month. After that, they will take a call because if they, if they fluster, they’ll both go because they know they’re going be dropped. If they do well, they can decide to leave on a happy note?
Now this Champion Trophy actually decides the fate of three people in here. It is Gautam with his entire coaching staff, if we do not perform well in the Champions Trophy, If Gautam’s job is in question, then so for Rohit and Virat as well. They are all also gone. Incidentally, the other teams are playing aggressive cricket and will not be easy to beat!
Looking ahead to our prospects at the Champions trophy, there are better teams than us. And you’re playing in Dubai. The thing is that other teams are currently playing more fearless cricket than us. We are still carrying excess baggage. India has always reached the semi-finals; this may, too, get difficult unless the youngsters takeover. Is the team composition the best we could have taken? Not everybody agrees. It may not be the best team available to us. There are again, some dead weight.
In the present selection, you are basically just playing to elongate careers. You are not thinking India first. The coach is India first, but not all players, that’s an insider’s impression. When we say India first, it means not thinking beyond yourself and your game, not necessarily for the team.
Should your coach have some kind of distancing from the players. Rahul David was a much older and a more seasoned and a more obviously respected figure, so he could command that kind of awe and respect. Is Gambhir in that role possible? Gautam has a very good equation with all the youngsters. They all really like him. Talk to some guys who have played for KKR, and all the young guys have all come back with positives. He knows his job well. The thing about him to understand is he’s a poker face guy on the field.
The Ten Commandments: Ranji Trophy is the new Must:
What do you think happened in the Ranji? Why did they all flop? It is a very big topic in itself. Many of the big players didn’t even reach double digits. Ranji Trophy cricket is totally different to playing international cricket. What is India worst at today in bat? Which, what kind of bowling can India not play today? Spin bowling! Imagine! India were the Kings in the days gone by, in playing spin. But we could not face pace. We had to win abroad, and we changed the way we curated our pitches. To make our players play pace. So much so, they started winning overseas, but back home now, they cannot play spin. That is story of playing Ranji Trophy now. Back at home, they were always skipping it. What has changed now. It is given in the 10 commandments. One of them is go back and play the Ranji Trophy.
Virat played his last Ranji Trophy match in 2012, or thereabouts. And Sachin Tendulkar played his last Ranji Trophy match in 2013. Sachin Tendulkar used to play Ranji trophy every year for his team Mumbai because he said, he needed to give back to domestic cricket. Shreyas Iyer plays regularly, so does Surya Kumar. Rohit Sharma also goes back and plays once in a while. But all the other guys are regular Ranji Trophy players only. Only Virat has not played. He is back now, last seen practicing with the Delhi team. And, there the story ends, or begins.
Indian cricket is going through a transitional stage, where change and passing the baton is inevitable. It is an uneasy phase but surely, we will get over it. We have an enormous pool of younger talent, hungry for success!