Stubborn Gambhir idealogy is turning Indian Test cricket into a clown show

‌Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the great Indian circus, yes, The Indian Cricket Show. What you saw yesterday may not be here today, and what you see now may never come back again. All credit to the great ringmaster Gautam Gambhir, who, one day, was one among you voicing his concerns and thoughts for the betterment of the show. Remember his iconic interview where he pitched for the ever-talented Sanju Samson to be backed at the same level as a Rohit Sharma or Virat Kohli? Such a seer! By the way, where is Sanju Samson now? Okay, that is for another day. Let us focus on the five-day circus for now. Thanks to the current team management and the selection committee, we are blessed with a hell lot of chaos and confusion with 24/7 entertainment, though not on the field.

The Indian head coach, back in October 2024 ahead of the home Test series against New Zealand, wished to create an adaptable unit that could "score 400 in a day" or "bat for two days to save a match". A whitewash and a little more than a year later, here we are, emphatically ticking both boxes, inflicting another clean sweep on ourselves. Oh wait, it was South Africa who scored more than 400 in the second game! So what, we outscored them, totalling 623 runs, albeit in four innings. In fact, the team can be proud that they adapted really well to manage two whitewashes in two years at home after suffering just one since the turn of the century.

Looks like Gambhir failed to flip his glossy and legacy-filled Indian Premier League hat before taking over the Indian cricket team. That has been evident from the number of players making their way from the cash-rich league into the purists’ format. Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, and Harshit Rana are simply the tip of the iceberg! No matter, that has helped the show get a lot of clowns, free of cost, who needlessly toil for days on the domestic circuit for reasons unknown.

From being a cash cow for the BCCI and one of the world’s most-watched leagues, the IPL has slowly gone on to become the elephant in the room for the all-white format. The country’s cricket administrators need to shelve the Ranji Trophy immediately and instead have a winter edition of the IPL. Modern-day problems require modern-day solutions, and believe me, once we have two IPLs, we are going to be the best Test-playing nation in the world, pocketing World Test Championships for fun.

With Shubman Gill moving to number four, the all-important one-drop position in India’s Test batting line-up opened up just ahead of the challenging England tour, and that too at the start of a new World Test Championship calendar. It was the perfect opportunity to reward some of the hardworking souls who toiled day in and day out in the domestic circuit. 

With more than 1000 runs to his name in the previous two first-class seasons at averages of 43.59 and 49.15, respectively, Karun Nair topped the list of contenders. And the Karnataka batter also had the experience of playing county cricket for Nottinghamshire in those two seasons. Then there was Abhimanyu Easwaran, who was travelling with the Indian team for more than a year and also averaged above 54 in the last three seasons.

Baba Indrajith has been waiting forever for a promotion with his consistent outings in the domestic scene. The middle-order batter has 6000 first-class runs at an average of 52.63, but has not been merited with a place even in the India A set-up, with the Tamil Nadu player featuring in just one game, outside the country, in Australia. Mumbai batter Sarfaraz Khan has been another prolific run-getter, including for India A, with the batter breaking into the national side during the home leg of the last World Test Championship cycle on the back of his unbelievable run in the domestic red-ball setup. But he played only six games and was dropped just two matches after scoring 150 against New Zealand in the second innings of the Bangalore Test.

But the short-sighted team management stuck to their policy of selecting players based on their performance in the IPL. After bringing in Reddy and Rana for the Australian tour last year, the selection committee continued to be swayed by performances in the franchise league. And they went in with Sudharsan, who had back-to-back 500-plus seasons for the Gujarat Titans. The southpaw was only three seasons old, with a modest first-class average of 38.67, and the selectors called out his prior experience in England as the determining factor that earned him a place in the side. But he had played only five games for Surrey in the County Championship with a tally of 281 runs at 35.12. They also picked Karun and Easwaran for the England tour, leaving Indrajith and Sarfaraz in the dark. 

With Karun scoring a double hundred for India A in the first pre-tour match against England Lions, it was anybody’s guess who would play at number three in the opening game. But Gambhir and Co. sprang a surprise by starting Sudharsan at three and terming him as their long-term bet at the pivotal spot. And in just one game, the musical chairs started as Karun, who started at six, was promoted to three for the next two games. Unsurprisingly, he was dropped for the fourth game to bring the left-handed Sudharsan back into the crucial role.

And come the home series against South Africa, Karun and Sarfaraz do not find a place in the Indian side. In fact, it is the best way to reward both players, who had run mountains behind them in recent domestic seasons on spin-friendly wickets, familiar to those played on in the two-Test series. And guess what, it is time for  ‘Dear Cricket…2.0’ and hope fans get an opportunity to celebrate the tweet before the former Vidarbha batter registers for some veterans’ league.

At least Karun and Sarfaraz know what to do! The pair need to construct a few more run mountains and patiently wait for the moment till they are picked. But spare a thought for what might be going through Washington Sundar’s mind. The Gujarat Titans player will have a bat in one hand and a ball in the other, trying to contemplate whether he is a batting all-rounder or a bowling all-rounder.

After his impressive rearguard action, alongside Ravindra Jadeja, to rescue India from the jaws of defeat in the Old Trafford Test, the southpaw would have hoped for a reassurance from the team management on his batting capabilities. The response was excellent, with the southpaw pushed back to number eight again in the next game. Just as he was coming back to terms with reality, the team further gave him hope, sending him at number three on a squarely turning surface. And yet he fought tooth and nail to come out as India’s top batter in the game with 60 runs and, more importantly, played out an impressive 174 balls together in both innings. No brownie points for guessing where the all-rounder batted in the next game…

Speaking of all-rounders, the Indian team under Gambhir seems to have been bitten by the bug. The former Indian international has been ever-vocal stand of having a batter at number eight suits the team well in limited overs, especially in T20Is, with the aggressive brand of cricket being played. But Test cricket is a different ball game altogether, and the one-size-fits-all approach clearly does not work here. Fast-tracking Reddy for the Australian series was still understandable, and having him in the side in England also made sense given India’s rarity in producing quality fast bowling all-rounders. But playing the Sunrisers Hyderabad all-rounder ahead of a specialist batter, that too in the absence of captain Gill, in a home Test was nothing short of foolishness. Again, going by the chain of events that has unfurled, it is unfair to think that common sense will prevail. And what made a mockery of the selection was that the medium pacer, who came in place of Axar Patel, bowled just 10 overs out of the total 230 overs put in by the side in both innings. With Karun and Sarfaraz waiting outside the squad and Devdutt Padikkal in the team, Nitish’s batting returns of 10 and 0 rightly suggested why a specialist batter would have been better in these conditions.

Hope the team management and the selection committee learn form their mistakes but it doesnt seem so from what was uttered by the head coach in post-match press conference. Rather than taking the blame and introspecting on where the game was lost, Gambhir did not miss a chance to indulge in chest thumping reminding the media about his exploits in the white ball. With a T20 World Cup round the corner, Gambhir looks to have survived a close shave from being sacked. But whether or not he stays, the domestic structure needs to be given more importance and players performing in it justly rewarded. And the selection of pitches and venues also need to be done carefully keeping in mind the nature of the side, which is in transition and does not boast the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin anymore. Even still if the team is adamant on playing on rank turners atleast equip the side with specialist batters so that we give a fight and lose decently.

And since its GG and Co, you dare guess what is on the cards. Vaibhav Suryavanshi might end up replacing KL Rahul in the Test side. And India will demand for even squarer turners in their next home series. Who knows, Kuldeep Yadav might be promoted to bat at number three after his fighting knock in the last game! Afterall, it’s entertainment, entertainment and only entertainment.