With Kohli & Rohit having retired, head coach Gambhir is now the most powerful figure in India's setup. It's time to back young talent & execute his plans. The only constant will be change...India's Test team has been staring at generational change for a while now. The murmurs of transition started with Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane losing their places three years ago. When Gautam Gambhir was appointed head coach last year, it was perceived as a forward-thinking move meant to shake things up and usher in fresh blood. In that context, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma's retirements may be perceived as part of the process the selection committee and management envisioned for the team.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!There seems to be only way ahead — invest heavily in talented youth who can form the core of the Test team in time. The returns are not to be judged immediately.
Who's that IPL player?This isn't an unfamiliar scenario in Indian cricket. When Sachin Tendulkar retired in 2013 within a year of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman calling it quits, the concerns were not too dissimilar. India went through the throes of transition for a good three years before becoming a force in Test cricket under Kohli's leadership.
Former India wicketkeeper Saba Karim, a national selector at that time, says, "We had MS Dhoni leading the team. He was clear how he wanted to shape the team and who were his best bets. There was clarity that we had to be ready to move on from Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Dhoni was the most important person.
"Kohli, Pujara and Rahane were all in and around the Test team. It helped that all three of them succeeded in South Africa in 2013 immediately after Tendulkar retired. The team wasn't winning but we were heading in the right direction. It was apparent that once Kohli took up the No. 4 position, he would form the core of the batting lineup," Karim told TOI.
This time around, there's no obvious leader in the team. Coach Gambhir came in with the mandate to usher in changes at the earliest. Now it's time to execute those plans. "Gambhir becomes the most important person here. He has to give confidence to the players. The first thing he needs to do is understand the new captain, the vision he has and the brand of cricket he wants the team to play," Karim said.
Gambhir can now become the most powerful head coach India have ever had. In 2017, Anil Kumble tried to enforce himself but then-captain Kohli had the last word. Yet, Gambhir has to tread carefully here. "Gambhir has clear ideas about how he wants his team to approach a game. But he needs to be the man who empowers players and creates leaders in the team. I'm sure he'll back someone like Rishabh Pant, who hit a rough patch in Australia, and give him more confidence on the upcoming, tough tour of England," former national selector Devang Gandhi said.
Replenishing bowling resourcesIt's not just about filling the void left by Rohit and Kohli. Not too long ago, India boasted of an enviable bowling attack that could hurt opposition teams irrespective of the nature of pitches and conditions. The famed pace attack of Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were handed the mantle starting from 2012-13.
"Those bowlers, including Bhuvneshwar Kumar, were identified for the longer run. They initially struggled to bowl out opposition batters even overseas. But the idea was to zero in on a pool of bowlers and keep working with them. Credit must go to Kohli for turning things around when he decided to play five bowlers in Tests. That regulated the workload of the pacers and became a metric going forward. Similarly, if you have identified the likes of Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep and Arshdeep, then stick with the pool," Karim said.
Gandhi revisited the process of creating a strong backup in 2020 with the help of Rahul Dravid, who looked after the NCA and India's developmental sides. "The primary job of our selection committee was to create bench strength. I went to eight ‘A' tours as a selector and had robust discussions with Dravid. Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini were ready to step up. India has to focus on red-ball ‘A' tours. The white-ball team will take care of itself because we have such a strong tournament like the IPL," Gandhi said.
In all the hype around the pace attack, one may have ignored the lack of resources in the spin-bowling department. "We chose R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja to lead the spin attack and it paid off. Probably, they need to give Kuldeep Yadav more game time and groom the likes of Sai Kishore and Washington Sundar," Karim said.
It's going to be a tough road ahead for India's Test team. Persistence and patience seem to be the need of the hour.
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