3 Reasons why BCCI should sack Gautam Gambhir as India's test coach

Gautam Gambhir was appointed as Team India’s all-format head coach in July.

The hype, excitement and expectations that surrounded Gautam Gambhir at the time of his appointment as the Indian cricket team‘s head coach in July earlier this year has all but diminished. What remain right now are frustrations and demands for bold calls, including his sacking as the test coach.

Gambhir’s contract as India’s all-format coach runs until the 2027 ODI World Cup. But if things continue on a downturn as they are right now, it’s possible that either he resigns himself or faces the sack from the BCCI way before his contract is up.

Gambhir took over the role from Rahul Dravid, who coached India to the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 title and runners-up finishes at the ICC WTC 2021-23 and ICC World Cup 2023.

India have started terribly under Gambhir: losing an ODI series to Sri Lanka, losing a home test series to New Zealand. Currently, in the BGT 2024-25, after taking a 1-0 lead in Perth, India lost in Adelaide and have fallen way behind in Brisbane. It’s difficult to envisage how this team will turn things around in Australia.

A place in the WTC 2025 final looks all but out of their reach right now, while the Champions Trophy 2025 and the test series in England could prove to be crucial factors in Gambhir’s journey as India’s head coach. For now, his place as the test coach is under scrutiny for various reasons.

3 Reasons why BCCI should sack Gautam Gambhir as India’s test coach:

No prior experience of coaching red-ball cricket

Gautam Gambhir got the India coach’s job on the back of mentoring KKR to the IPL 2024 title. To note is that he was the mentor there, and not the coach. In fact, Gambhir has been a mentor in the IPL since 2022, previously with LSG, and didn’t hold the coach’s position.

More notably, he’s never coach a top-level team in red-ball cricket. So to make him an all-format coach based on white-ball credentials was already a risk, something that has now come to bite the Indian team back.

No accountability

Not once since the start of the Adelaide test has Gautam Gambhir fronted up the media. The Indian team has sent captain Rohit Sharma, assistant coaches Abhishek Nayar and Ryan ten Doeschate and fast bowling coach Morne Morkel to the press conferences.

In fact, even during the home test series against New Zealand, where India suffered a 3-0 whitewash for the first time in history, Gambhir was a largely absent figure from the press room.

Weirdly, the standout statement from Gambhir’s press conference after the series loss vs New Zealand was his rude reply to Ricky Ponting.

Bizarre calls, strategies and decisions

The fact that Washington Sundar, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja all played one test each in the first three tests of the BGT 2024-25 aptly epitomizes the farcical confusion in selection of the test side under Gautam Gambhir.

Some of the decisions at the toss by captain Rohit Sharma, which cannot be exclusive to coach Gambhir, have further raised doubts of the coach’s ability to judge the pitch and conditions in the longest format, be it choosing to bat first in overcast and moist conditions in Bengaluru vs New Zealand or electing to bowl first on the flat Gabba track with a history of favoring batting-first teams.

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