'What did you do when India won the Champions Trophy under him? What did you do when India won the Asia Cup under him?'
Batting great Sunil Gavaskar strongly defended India Coach Gautam Gambhir despite the humiliating 0-2 series whitewash at the hands of South Africa.
He hit back at Gambhir's critics stating that the people who ignored his role in India's Asia Cup and Champions Trophy triumphs are now holding the coach accountable for India's defeat against South Africa.
'He is a coach. The coach can prepare a team but it's out there in the middle that the players have to deliver. Now, to those who are asking for him to be held accountable, my counter question is 'what did you do when India won the Champions Trophy under him? What did you do when India won the Asia Cup under him?''
'You are asking for his sacking now? Did you say then that he should be given an extended contract, a contract for life for one day cricket and for T20 cricket?. You didn't say that. It's only when a team doesn't do well you look at the coach,' Gavaskar told the India Today television channel.
Under Gambhir, India suffered two series sweeps in consecutive years including the 0-3 defeat against New Zealand last year.
The 408 run defeat is India's biggest loss at home in terms of runs. Their previous biggest margin of defeat was 342 runs against Australia in Nagpur in October 2024. This is also the first time that India have lost five Tests at home within a span of seven games.
Gavaskar claimed that the series defeat against New Zealand last year was the lowest point for India in Tests.
'Losing 3-0 to New Zealand was even worse for me than losing to the World champions South Africa. I think losing all three Tests matches to New Zealand was the lowest point.'
Gavaskar also called upon the BCCI to get recent coaches like Ravi Shastri, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble along with the great Sachin Tendulkar to do a thorough review of India's recent woes in Tests.
'I am saying you need to do a thorough postmortem of the areas you need to strengthen at the Test level, that is something you need to do. You need to bring in an outside perspective, not within the confines of the selection committee and the coaching staff and the team, you need to bring people who are connected with the game but who are outside and who will bring in another perspective.
'Take a Ravi Shastri for example, take Rahul Dravid or Anil Kumble or Sourav Ganguly or Sachin Tendulkar, get them together. These people have recently finished playing cricket, maybe 8-10 years ago so they are better versed with it than someone who retired 30 years ago.
'They should formulate what Indian cricket should do for the next five years.'
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