26/11/2025
The thing that struck me as odd about Gautam Gambhir as coach is how he approaches Test cricket like its the same as an ODI or T20 game and his comments repeatedly make it clear that he doesn't understand the difference in the formats.
In his first Test match as Coach, Sarfaraz Khan makes his debut, replacing Virat Kohli at 4 who was injured and scores a 150 on debut in the 2nd innings.
In the next Test match, Sarfaraz is pushed to number 6. Now you can say that once Kohli is back, its natural he would be pushed down.
Ok then he could have batted at 5? Now you can say that's Rishabh Pant's settled position. Okay so 6 is the only spot available for Sarfaraz.
But then, in the same match, in the 2nd innings, Sarfaraz is batting at 7, as Washington Sundar is pushed ahead of him.
In the 3rd Test 1st innings, Sarfaraz is again sent at number 7, Jadeja promoted ahead of him. In the 2nd innings, Sarfaraz gets number 6 again.
The reason provided is to keep a left-right combination. And this is what I mean by Gambhir not understanding the difference in formats.
This is a strategy from ODI/T20 cricket where in the middle offers outside of PP and death overs, you try to keep a left-right combination for strike rotation, to unsettle the spinners and make them adjust their lines. In white ball, you have to be flexible with your batting positions, and mostly you use floaters based on the match situation and stage of the game.
MS Dhoni famously promoted himself ahead of Yuvraj to maintain a left-right combination with Gambhir at the other end against Muralitharan in the middle overs.
Have you ever heard of anyone using this strategy in Test cricket?
In Test cricket, you have settled batting positions, not floaters. India's Test batting line up has always been right hander heavy and these are some of India's famous middle orders.
3. Rahul Dravid
4. Sachin Tendulkar
5. Virat Kohli
and then
3. Cheteshwar Pujara
4. Virat Kohli
5. Ajinkya Rahane
Can you imagine anyone meddling with this line up to send a left handed floater to bat with Dravid or Kohli to have Left-Right combination?
And now look at India's selection and combination and batting line ups for this Test series.
In the 1st Test, India went with 6 bowlers, (3 all rounders, 4 spinners) and India barely needed them. Washington Sundar ended up batting at 3. India also went with 2 wicket keepers, playing Jurel as a specialist batsman at number 4, same position held by Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
In the 2nd Test, again India went with 6 bowlers (3 allrounders, 3 spinners) and ended up barely using Nitish Kumar Reddy, the seam bowling allrounder. Once again Jurel played at number 4, a backup wicket keeper batting in the most important batting position.
Now look at his statements today at the end of the 0-2 loss. He immediately cited the Asia Cup and Champions Trophy as successes without understanding they are different formats.
Gambhir reflects a fundamental flaw in thinking that a lot of 80s, 90s and some 2000s cricketers have - inability to see the formats as fundamentally different from each other.
20 years ago when Gambhir made his debut, Cricket was very different. There were 2 primary formats and you generally played the same XI. The game did not require vastly different skillsets and a Test players like Dravid ended up being ODI Captain and playing 344 ODIs.
By 2010s, this had completely changed. Aaron Finch is Australia's T20 WC winning Captain, but complete failure in Test cricket.
Rishabh Pant and R Aswhin are two of India's finest Test match winners but neither Pant nor Ashwin had the same success in White ball.
Gambhir's failure to see Test cricket as a different format that requires totally different thinking, skillset and approach from White Ball is why Indian Test team under him has completely fallen apart.
India's greatest Test team under Kohli-Shastri management had a core group of Test specialists, from Murali Vijay as opener to Pujara, Rahane in the middle, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma in the Seam department.
The idea Test XI is
5 specialist batsmen
1 wicket keeper batsman
1 all rounder
4 specialist bowlers
You build a squad with that in mind. You should have a backup opener, and at least 2 backup middle order batsmen in the red ball pool who can replace if anyone gets injured.
If Jadeja is playing as an allrounder, you don't need Nitish Kumar as seam bowling allrounder in Asian conditions.
And lastly, Dhruv Jurel is a wicket keeper, he should only play if Pant is injured or dropped. There is no way in hell he can be a replacement for a position filled by Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.
