The Making of a Gun Team

THE ASIA CUP is round the corner and yet again the focus is on Gautam Gambhir. Gambhir is one of those figures who forever polarise opinion. You either like him a lot or you hate him. There is rarely something in between. Gambhir is not averse to making tough deci­sions and will always take ownership of his actions. Some decisions will go wrong and he is not one to blame the captain or anyone else for such calls.

Take the case of Washington Sundar. Sundar was not really on the radar for Test cricket in 2024 when Gautam got him to play against New Zealand. He was an instant success, and while we lost 0-3, Sundar did make some telling contributions. Gambhir persisted with him in Australia and it was evident he was looking at Sundar as a long-term all-round option.

It worked brilliantly in England and Sundar was one of the stars of the Indian effort. He was brilliant with the ball at Lord’s and set the game up for India. Thereafter, he was instrumental in saving the game in Manchester and played an impor­tant hand in levelling the series at the Oval. Credit for Sundar’s rise as a Test cricketer must go to Gambhir.

Two other cases in point are Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson. Sharma scores at an astonishing strike rate of 195 at the top of the order. He will fail on occasions but on days that he gets going, he will inevitably set the game up for India. For any player to be able to do this, he needs the licence to be fearless. And that’s what Gautam has done. He has been able to give Samson and Sharma the confidence to be fearless. To tell them that their position is not going to be in doubt with a couple of failures. That they have the sup­port of the team management to go hard at the top, even if it doesn’t come off on occasion. Like it or not, this is a definitive call. It is a call that has set the template for India’s T20 approach that we will again see in Dubai at the Asia Cup.

So what’s the way forward for Gambhir as India’s head coach? Will he make a difference to Indian cricket and help India win multiple ICC Trophies, or can his headstrong nature cost Indian cricket in the long run?

Gambhir, since taking over as coach, has had a tumultuous 12 months. His first six months were disastrous. India lost a white-ball series against Sri Lanka and thereaf­ter went on to lose a red-ball series against New Zealand at home. The scoreline, 0-3, was shocking and was a grim reminder that Indians don’t play spin well anymore. Thereafter, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy was painful as well. India started brilliantly in Perth and won a Test match against all odds. Jasprit Bumrah was inspirational as captain and, in the absence of Rohit Sharma, he led from the front to win.

Thereafter, it was all downhill. While there were patches of brilliance from the Indians, they failed to live up to expectations and Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement midway through the series summed things up. Indian cricket was not in good health and Gambhir needed to do something urgently.

After Australia, Gambhir managed to turn things around. Winning against a full-strength England white-ball side at home set the template for the Champions Trophy, which India won without breaking a sweat. It was a dominant effort, and to think that India brushed aside Australia, Pakistan, and New Zealand without being pushed was commendable. Gambhir was gradually getting a hold on things, and England were likely to be his real Test.

Leeds made it tougher for him and the fact that India went down despite being the dom­inant team for most of the match hurt bad­ly. Gambhir needed a fight from his team, and another reversal in Birmingham meant the series could go downhill. His young bowl­ing attack stood up and once more his calls to back Akash Deep and Prasidh Krishna stood vindicated. Finally, when India squared the series at the Oval with Mohammed Siraj leading the way, Gambhir seemed to have turned the tide as head coach.

The next 12 months could see the making of Gautam Gambhir. The Asia Cup isn’t expected to challenge India and then the team plays a lot of red-ball cricket at home. The West Indies aren’t expected to pose too big a threat, and Gambhir will know that if India win against South Africa at home, the WTC final could well open up for him. He will not hold back from experimenting and we could well see calls like Washington Sundar batting higher up the order.

Gambhir has forever been defined by his fight. He isn’t overawed and criticism doesn’t faze him. He was castigated for the result against New Zealand but went about his task in the best way possible. It was a poor result and there was no running away from it. But to feel the pressure and then crumble isn’t Gambhir. Rather, he would have made it a point to move on and inject the same verve into his team.

“Gauti bhai was always a pillar of support. He kept telling me it was not about my individual runs. Rather, it was about the partnerships I was able to forge, for that’s what would help us win games,” said Karun Nair.

Akash Deep, who played a stellar hand in winning India the Edgbaston Test, concurred, “Gauti bhai always made it a point to tell us that we are good enough to beat any team in the world. His words made a huge difference. To know that you can and to see your head coach telling you every single day that you are good enough to win helps hugely on a tough tour. He is a brilliant motivator and that is one of his best qualities.”

Shubman Gill summed things up nicely at the series-ending press conference, “Gauti bhai said to us at the very start of the tour that people are calling us an inexperienced team. They are saying we are a young team. At the end of the tour, we don’t want to be known as an inexperienced team or a young team. We want to be known as a gun team, and that’s the only ambition.”

The truth is, he was right, and Gambhir can only get better.

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