With just Test series wins against Bangladesh and West Indies to show in the last 12 months, and series defeats at home to New Zealand and South Africa to go with heavy defeat in Australia and a drawn series in England, India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir has called on Indian cricket stakeholders to prioritise Test cricket. After showing signs of improvement during the England tour earlier this year, India were whitewashed once again in a home Test series by South Africa on Wednesday.
The alarming results in Test cricket has laid bare India’s struggles in the format where they have been found wanting in seaming and spinning tracks. In England, where the pitches were on the flatter side, they managed to draw the series. Speaking soon after yet another series defeat Gambhir was asked what are the areas that need to be immediately addressed with regards to India’s Test team, to which he said the priority has to be Test cricket
“Start prioritising Test cricket, if we are really, really serious about Test cricket. And that is something which is important, that is going to happen overall, where everyone needs to be the stakeholder for that. So if we really care about Test cricket, if we want Test cricket to flourish in India, I think we have got to have a collective effort to make that happen,” Gambhir said.
With all the scrutiny now on the coaching staff which includes Gambhir and the selection choices, the head coach reckoned it isn’t the time to blame individuals. “Just blaming the players or just blaming the support staff or just blaming certain individuals will not help. And as I just said, we cannot put things under the carpet. Come the white ball formats, if you get runs in white ball formats, suddenly you forget about what you have done in red ball cricket, that should never happen. Because red ball cricket is a completely different challenge to white ball cricket and is a completely different challenge to what you get in T20 cricket. There needs to be different skill sets. And more importantly, there needs to be tough characters that are important to be a successful Test side. You do not need the most skilful and the most flamboyant players to succeed in Test cricket. You need the toughest characters with limited skills who will go on to succeed in Test cricket irrespective of how the conditions and what the situation is,” Gambhir added.