India vs Australia: ‘No one apart from India’ – Gautam Gambhir explains why this Indian team looks ‘so unsettled’

If India do not win the Boxing Day Test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground starting Saturday, it will be the first time in 88 years that they will end a year without registering even a single Test win in a year. The Boxing Day Test will be India’s fourth of the year – they were blanked 0-2 in New Zealand earlier this year in February and were beaten comprehensively by Australia in Adelaide.

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Former opening batsman Gautam Gambhir, who was part of the team when India reached the pinnacle of the ICC Test rankings in 2009, believes the reason India are in a mess is due to the constant chopping and changing that’s been done to their Playing XI. Gambhir’s statements come after India announced their Playing XI for the MCG Test, which includes four changes, albeit two of them are forced. With Ravindra Jadeja coming in for Virat Kohli and Mohammed Siraj replacing the injured Mohammed Shami, the other two changes were Shubman Gill taking Prithvi Shaw’s place and Rishabh Pant coming in for Wriddhiman Saha for the wicketkeeper’s slot.

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Gambhir feels Pant and Saha are unfortunate knowing that neither player’s place in the team in secured for it given it was just after one match that Saha will be replaced by Pant. “It’s unfortunate and Wriddhiman Saha has played just one Test match in this series and he hasn’t done well and gets dropped. “Imagine what happens to Pant if he doesn’t do well in this Test or the third Test. What do you do then? Would you go back to Wriddhiman Saha,” Gambhir said on YouTube channel Sports Today.

“That’s why this team looks so unsettled because no one is secured. Professional sport is all about security. Everyone has talent when they are representing the country. All they want is security and that assurance that we are there to back you, not just by words but by action. No one apart from India rotates wicketkeeper based on conditions.”

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Following MS Dhoni’s retirement from Test cricket in early 2015, Saha emerged as India’s figure behind the stumps. It was in 2018 that Pant was drafted in India’s Test setup after injuries had shoved the Bengal wicketkeeper batsman out. However, since his return, Saha and Pant have been involved in see-saw battle, and it’s hurting India big time, reckons Gambhir.

“Actually, it’s been unfair on Rishabh Pant and Wriddhiman Saha both over a long period of time when they have picked and chosen players on conditions. You don’t do that with wicketkeepers. You do that with bowlers,” he fumed.

“In overseas conditions, you play two spinners based on conditions, its understandable, but which other teams in the world has chopped and changed wicketkeepers based on conditions. No one apart from India.”

Gambhir ridiculed the argument that one keeper is better than the other when it comes to playing at home and abroad. “I have never believed in this theory of rotation policy that Wriddhiman Saha is only good for sub-continent and Rishabh Pant is better overseas because that’s not how good teams go into. If you are good in Indian conditions, you got to deliver in overseas conditions as well. Whether he does that or not is irrelevant,” the former India batsman added.

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