Guwahati, Nov 24: Ravi Shastri has ripped into India head coach Gautam Gambhir, tearing apart the team management’s bewildering selection strategy in the ongoing Test series against South Africa.
The former India coach, who once oversaw some of the team’s finest years, admitted he has spent the past week simply trying to make sense of decisions that, in his view, defy logic. And in classic Shastri fashion, he didn’t sugarcoat a thing.
All-rounder obsession is sinking this team
Shastri’s sharpest criticism was reserved for India’s sudden fixation with stuffing the XI with all-rounders. Since Gambhir took over last year, India’s Test side has drifted into a chaotic experiment, where genuine specialists — particularly technically-sound batters like Sarfaraz Khan and Ruturaj Gaikwad — have been cold-shouldered. In their place, the management has fast-tracked multi-skill players like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana, disrupting what was once a well-balanced structure.
This muddle reached its peak in the South Africa series. India bizarrely picked three spin all-rounders for the opening Test and then sent Washington Sundar — who isn’t even a frontline spinner in this setup — to bat at No. 3 ahead of a proper top-order batter, Sai Sudharsan. Predictably, the move blew up in Gambhir’s face as India slumped to a 30-run defeat.
Shubman Gill’s injury in the second Test forced Sudharsan back to his rightful position, but Gambhir doubled down on the all-rounder-heavy madness by bringing in Nitish Kumar Reddy for Axar Patel — another head-scratcher.
What’s the plan? What’s the logic?
If the selection wasn’t confusing enough, the usage was downright comical. Sundar, who was bizarrely pushed down to No. 8 for the second Test, had bowled a grand total of one over in the first match. Shastri questioned the very point of picking him if the team had no real intention of using his bowling.
According to Shastri, India have turned a straightforward job into a mind-bending puzzle. Instead of backing specialists and allowing batters to settle into stable roles, Gambhir has shuffled players like pieces on a board, with little clarity and even less conviction. The result? A batting unit collapsing under its own confusion — and that too on home soil.
Shastri didn’t hold back when assessing India’s muddled approach.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” he said on air, quoted by News18. “I’m still trying to fathom the thought process. In Kolkata, Sundar bowled only one over. You could easily have played another specialist batsman. And if Sundar batted at three in the last Test, why push him to eight now? He’s far better than that.”
India stare at another humiliation
India were already whitewashed at home by New Zealand last year — a stain that should never have appeared on Gambhir’s watch. Now the hosts stand on the brink of yet another embarrassing Test series sweep, this time at the hands of South Africa. The visitors are closing in on history, and India, under Gambhir, look utterly directionless.
The knives are out. The whispers in the cricketing corridors are growing louder. And if India surrender this series 2–0, Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as head coach may not survive the fallout. (Agencies)
