Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Jasprit Bumrah in a conversation© AFP
India captain Rohit Sharma maintained in the press conference after the Melbourne Test that he has had conversations with players in the team over various matters, including but not limited to playing XI selection. However, a report has made an explosive claim, saying Rohit’s communication with certain ‘not-so-junior’ players in the team broken down after Gautam Gambhir replaced Rahul Dravid as India’s head coach. Rohit, who doesn’t shy away from speaking his mind, has claimed to have kept his conversations with players quite open, but that doesn’t seem to be the entire reality.
A report in PTI has claimed that, skipper Rohit has maintained that he speaks individually to the players about selection issues. But after Gambhir took charge in July, Rohit, it is said, hasn’t actually given clarity to some of the not-so-junior players about why they were being excluded at times from the side.
His own poor form hasn’t helped Rohit’s cause. But it is also reliably learnt that Gambhir, who is considered a more assertive person, hasn’t earned a lot of confidence from the group of players, who aren’t as old as Kohli or Rohit but are also not rookies like Harshit Rana or Nitish Reddy.
The report seems to be talking about mid-experienced players in the team like Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul etc.
The report has further claimed that Gambhir’s role as Team India’s head coach could be in jeopardy if results don’t improve swiftly. With India all but out of the ICC World Test Championship race, Gambhir’s fate as the team’s head coach could be decided in the forthcoming Champions Trophy.
“There is a Test match to be played and then there is Champions Trophy. If the performance doesn’t improve, even Gautam Gambhir’s position wouldn’t be safe,” a senior BCCI official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
Gambhir’s equation with the selection committee is also not particularly clear at this point.
With PTI Inputs
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