Sydney/Mumbai: The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Wednesday pushed back against reports of a rift in the Team India dressing room in Australia, but said that the performances of all players was being analysed closely with the team trailing 1-2 going into the final Test. This, officials in the board stressed, included senior players such as skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, and even the team’s coach Gautam Gambhir.
To be sure, a win in Sydney will bring India back on level terms and allow them to retain the Border Gavaskar trophy as the current holders — and a lot of the intrigue and criticism may end if that happens.
“The team is together, and of course there is no rift,” a top BCCI official told HT on condition of anonymity. “We are looking at all the performances — of the young players, the seniors, and the head coach.”
Rohit is set to lead in the Sydney Test match despite a poor run of scores in the series — 3 and 6 in Adelaide, 10 in Brisbane and 3 and 9 in Melbourne, and at a dismal average of 6.2. The feeling within the camp is that Rohit may move on from Test cricket after the end of the series. Kohli, too, is under pressure to keep his place despite a century in the first Test at Perth — particularly since he has been dismissed chasing the ball outside the off-stump all the six times he was out in this series. He was unbeaten in the second innings in Perth and India did not lose a wicket in the second innings when the rain-affected Brisbane Test was called off.
“The captain will obviously have a longer rope,” a national selector told HT at the start of the series. “But so much will depend on how he does in the series.”
Not just the seniors, the performance of coach Gambhir is also being monitored closely. India have lost the only Test series under Gambhir so far — a humiliating 3-0 defeat at home to New Zealand, and the struggle continues Down Under.
“Gambhir spoke out in the customary post-match briefing at Melbourne against batters on not sticking to team plans. He spoke not against the idea of playing strokes or how some of the batters got out but playing it at the wrong time,” a person from the touring group said on condition of anonymity.
Though no names were taken, Rishabh Pant’s brain fade to hit off-spinner Travis Head out of the park after having buckled down for the whole of the post-lunch session has been heavily criticised by experts in the aftermath of the Melbourne defeat.
If Rohit does indeed move on from Test cricket, vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah appears set to be appointed captain. The team responded to Bumrah at Perth and former India skipper Sunil Gavaskar had even felt that he should have continued as skipper for the entire series.
A full-fledged post mortem of the tour will be conducted after the BCCI special general meeting on Jan 12 when the new secretary will be appointed.
