Gautam Gambhir's tenure as the head coach of the Indian cricket team has started on a disastrous note as after the Men in Blue lost a bilateral ODI series to Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years in August, the Rohit Sharma-led side faced further embarrassment after losing a home Test series for the first time in 12 months.
India's world record streak of winning 18 Test series in a row at home came to an end after defeat to New Zealand with one match left in the series. After a eight-wicket defeat in Bengaluru, the hosts suffered a 113-run loss in Pune.
With the team's dominance at home ending, Gambhir has faced criticism from all corners as the team suffered defeat in only his second Test series in charge of the team.
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Meanwhile, old remarks about former India head coach Ravi Shastri have come back to bite Gambhir with an old clip of the 43-year-old lashing out at the 1983 World Cup-winner and questioning what he has achieved in his career.
“I’m sure that people who haven’t won anything give these kinds of statements. I don’t know what Shastri has achieved in his career apart from winning the World Championship in Australia. I don’t think he was a part of an overseas series win. If you haven’t won anything yourself, you end up giving this kind of statement. I’m sure people wouldn’t have taken this seriously. I’m sure he must not have seen enough cricket. If he had he seen enough cricket, he wouldn’t have given that statement,” said Gambhir in an old interview with News 18.
“It was very childish. Even if you had won 4-1, you won’t say this is the best Indian team touring abroad. You would still stay humble and say we want to take this, we want to go forward, we want to keep improving. You wouldn’t say this is the best Indian team ever overseas. This is childish. I’m sure people wouldn’t have taken this seriously. I don’t know about other people but I didn’t take it seriously because it was a very immature statement,”Gambhir added.
This didn't age well 🫥Gambhir on Shastri pic.twitter.com/uD6oJHFR2Q
— Cricketopia (@CricketopiaCom) October 26, 2024
Shastri was India's head coach from 2017 to 2021 in a period they won Test series on Australian soil twice. Previously, no Indian team had ever won a red-ball series in Australia before.
Gambhir replaced Rahul Dravid in the top job earlier this year and has a three and half-year contract till December 2027.