Pressure is piling on Gautam Gambhir and there’s no denying that. He was appointed as the head coach of the Indian team after a title-winning Indian Premier League-winning season with Kolkata Knight Riders. But, results have gone awry as Gambhir’s tenure has progressed. After the recent 1-3 defeat to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Gambhir found himself in the line of fire. Even during the BCCI meeting on Saturday, the head coach had to face some tough questions. Even Dinesh Karthik, Virat Kohli‘s long-term teammate in the Indian team and Royal Challengers Bengaluru feels the time is tough for Gambhir.
“I think, when it comes to Gautam Gambhir, you got to cut him some slack a little bit because I think he has come in at a very tough time. Post a successful regime of Rahul Dravid, it’s never easy to fill those shoes,” Karthik told Cricbuzz.
It’s the T20 cricket where Gambhir has found the most success of late, thanks to his mentorship stints with Lucknow Super Giants and Kolkata Knight Riders. But, the longer formats still seem to be a struggle for him.
“He has found success, an immense success in T20 cricket, where he’s had a lot of young boys. He’s been able to have, I would dare say, a massive influence over them. But in Test cricket, he has had the going very hard.
Gambhir is also perceived as the sort of person who likes to impose his own style of play. Hence, Karthik wonders if Gambhir is happy with his current players.
“I think the biggest decision for him to make is if he is very, very happy with his current set of players. Is he able to influence them over decision-making? Are they aligned with his thought process? What is his ideology of how the Test team should look? And are these players fitting in? If that is the case, great. If not, then you have to obviously figure out what is the best way moving forward,” he said.
“Test cricket has been hard for Gautam Gambhir, the coach,” concluded Karthik.
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