BCCI Confirms Gambhir to Continue as Coach, Kohli and Rohit’s Test Career Not Over Yet
India’s coach Gautam Gambhir, along with the senior players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are in the receipt of much criticism following the loss of the Test series against Australia and the team’s inability to secure a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
India lost a Test series on home soil for the first time in 12 years against New Zealand. This was also the first time that India suffered a series sweep in Tests on home soil. Then, India failed to defend the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) which it had not done for the last 10 years. Although the first match was won by Australia by 295 runs, it won the series by 3-1 respectively.
Rohit Sharma battled for success in the Test format, getting only 31 runs in five innings with an average of 6.1 against Australia. Virat Kohli started the tour on a good note by scoring a century in the first Test but failed to live up to the expectations thereafter. He was not able to make a half-century and had an average of 23.95 for the whole tour where he played 9 innings and scored 190 runs.
Gautam Gambhir’s coaching role also started poorly. The team lost to New Zealand and Australia after having been defeated by Sri Lanka, which marked the first series loss for India in almost three decades. As reported by IANS, Gambhir along with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will remain in their positions even though India has been losing streak. The BCCI has also decided to assess the matter and not make any changes right away.
“Yes, there will be a review meeting but no firing. C’mon, you can’t sack a coach for the batters’ poor show in one series. Gautam Gambhir will remain the coach, and Virat and Rohit will feature in the England series. The focus is Champions Trophy,” a BCCI source told IANS.
The focus now turns to white-ball cricket as the ICC Champions Trophy is scheduled to happen next month. India’s next red ball game is a five-Test tour of England which is scheduled to start in August.