India vs Australia: File photo of Gautam Gambhir and Indian cricketers© AFP
The pre-departure press conference of Indian cricket team coach Gautam Gambhir, ahead of the Border Gavaskar Trophy, was an aggressive one. Gambhir was not happy with former Australia captain Ricky Ponting‘s comments on Virat Kohli‘s form. Then, Ponting called Gambhir a ‘prickly character’. It was the perfect spicy build-up that the India vs Australia series needed. On Sky Sports, former England captain Mike Atherton asked Simon Doull about Gautam Gambhir’s recent remark about Ricky Ponting. The former New Zealand pacer commented that Gambhir’s tenure as India coach could be shorter that Greg Chappell. The former Australia player had a tumultuous time at the helm of the Indian cricket team from mid-2005 till early 2007.
Players like Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh were not happy with him.
“It could be a shorter tenure than Greg Chappell’s tenure in charge of India. Who knows!!! We have all either play alongside him or sat with him, we know he can be that gruff type of character. Is it what India need at this moment? Well, they certainly feel they do. He has the history and the backing to be able to sit down with those players and talk to them about how to play the game and how Test cricket works. But it’s a tough ask, and its a huge series coming up. He’s never going to be friendly with the media, but if he embraced it a little more, he could end up having a bit of a cult following. But not sure he’s going down that road. And if he doesn’t get the results in Australia, or its a 4-1 or 5-0, I don’t know if his job continues,” Doull he said.
Nasser Hussain, another former England captain, also took Ponting’s side. “It’s a complete flip because they went from Dravid, who was more affable on the outside, but tough as nails inwardly, while Gambhir is angry on the outside and quite calm in the dressing room. But it was an odd dig at Ricky, who was only asked to comment on Virat, and now has been told to speak only on Australian players. That will be a tough ask as a pundit in an India-Australia series,” he said.
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