Shamik Chakrabarty, Galle
India haven’t lost a Test series in Sri Lanka since 2008. In 2010, it was a 1-1 stalemate. In 2015, the tourists, under Ravi Shastri as head coach and Virat Kohli as captain, bounced back spectacularly after being caught in Rangana Herath’s spin web in the first Test in Galle. Two years later, India, a dominant force in red-ball cricket at the time, made short work of the hosts in the island nation, romping to a 3-0 clean sweep.
Over the last couple of years, India have lost their mojo as a Test team. Sri Lanka are also in steady decline, and three days before the start of another Test series between the two Asian rivals, interest has been lukewarm, to put it mildly.
The lead sports story in Daily Mirror, one of the leading newspapers here, on Tuesday was Sri Lanka recording “a comprehensive 100-34 victory over India” in the Asian Senior Netball Championship. In the parking lot at Colombo airport, discussions about cricket were conspicuous by their absence. An elderly Lebanese lady instead vented her ire against Donald Trump and gifted this correspondent a lighter, probably for giving her a patient hearing. En route to Galle, the cabbie did speak about cricket, but that was restricted to Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Virat Kohli.
On the face of it, the Sri Lankans are yet to open their hearts and hearths to this two-match series, which might change when the first Test starts in Galle on Saturday. From India’s perspective, though, the demands are completely different. After suffering back-to-back home series whitewashes against New Zealand and South Africa over a period of less than 18 months, Shubman Gill & Co. probably can’t afford to lose this one. More than Gill, however, Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, will be under the spotlight.
A straight question — is Gambhir walking a tightrope as a red-ball coach? The answer is, according to sources, very unlikely.
To start with, there is an acceptance within the BCCI that India have been going through a transition in the longest format, and any team would take time to recover from the phasing out of the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravichandran Ashwin. Injuries have also played a part. There is a firm belief in the camp that the results against South Africa would have been different if Gill had been fit and available. In the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, India are also missing Jasprit Bumrah, Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar, at least for the first Test.
The ‘Gambhir hatao’ campaign has gathered pace on social media following India’s implosion in the white-ball series in the UK — a T20I whitewash against Ireland, followed by 4-0 and 2-1 defeats in the T20Is and ODIs respectively against England. The problem is that when India were winning everything in the shortest format, the critics were trying to put the boot in by citing Gambhir’s poor record as a Test coach. Now, it is the other way around. The fact that red-ball and white-ball cricket are mutually exclusive needs to be taken into account.
After the Sri Lanka series, India will have only two more red-ball assignments left in the current World Test Championship (WTC) cycle — in New Zealand and a home series against Australia. It is learnt that an interim appointment, even in the worst-case scenario, is all but ruled out. VVS Laxman is more comfortable working as the head of cricket at the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. Also, the idea of split coaching has yet to become fashionable in Indian cricket. Of course, if the 44-year-old decides to walk, that would be a completely different matter. But this is purely hypothetical.
As regards the shorter formats, Gambhir will continue at least until the 2027 ODI World Cup.
P.S. Gambhir’s unscheduled visit to the Galle International Stadium on a rest day — does that suggest a man under pressure? Unlikely, as the head coach seemingly has an obsession with pitches.
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