It’s only been five months since India successfully defended their T20 World Cup crown in Ahmedabad. It’s been five long months since Suryakumar Yadav’s men became the first outfit to triumph on home soil.
The euphoria of a grand campaign which climaxed in two powerhouse batting displays that netted team totals in excess of 250 in both the semifinals and the final disappeared in less than three weeks as the IPL carnival marched into town and pitched tent. The exploits of a 15-year-old quickly relegated the World Cup heroics to a footnote, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi setting the world afire with one spectacular knock after another to break down the doors to international cricket.
However, post the IPL, Indian cricket has been grabbed by a sense of despair and dismay. The bubble emphatically burst in Ireland towards the end of June when, against all odds and in an upset of gargantuan proportions, the home side stunned India 2-0 in a Twenty20 International series. India were at full strength, under a new captain with Suryakumar having been given the heave-ho because of a poor run of scores that couldn’t make up for his wonderful leadership abilities at the World Cup. Yet, the Irish breezed past Shreyas Iyer’s side in the first game and held their nerve to eke out a one-run victory in the next, triggering euphoria in the little nation and disbelief and shock elsewhere in the world. India had an immediate chance to make amends in England against the team that had run them perilously close in the World Cup semifinal. But with Harry Brook firing on all cylinders and his colleagues taking their cue from the skipper, England stormed to a 4-0 victory (the first match was washed out) to ensure there was no joy on the snappy tour of the United Kingdom for the new leadership group of Shreyas and head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Some redemption
The only salve came in the form of a 3-0 sweep in Zimbabwe when V.V.S. Laxman stood in as head coach. After Ireland, nothing was a formality anymore and therefore those who might point out that there was nothing flash about the ‘expected’ outcome might want to think again. India were back to their dominant selves, almost, in the three fixtures at the Harare Sports Club to briefly dispel the pall of gloom. But as they embark on their latest challenge in the World Test Championship, the picture of a ship in trouble, with the crew disjointed and pulling in different directions when the need of the hour is to stay on the same page and resuscitate a challenge now floundering desperately, is discouraging, at the very least.
Jasprit Bumrah.
| Photo Credit:
Getty Images
The list of injuries has mounted alarmingly in the last few weeks. It was bad enough that all-rounders Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar, as well as Harshit Rana, the pacer whom Gambhir is trying to shape into an all-rounder, were ruled out of the two-Test tour of Sri Lanka long before the selectors under Ajit Agarkar met to pick the squad. Among those selected was Jasprit Bumrah, the pace king who is the best bowler in the world, his tribulations in the IPL notwithstanding, and who can take the pitch and the conditions out of the equation anywhere in the universe. Subject to the caveat that he needed to clear a fitness test at the Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, a caveat that also accompanied left-handed batter Sai Sudharsan’s selection.
Bumrah has since been ruled out, yet to fully recover from the impact injury to his left knee sustained while fielding in the second One-Day International against England in Cardiff some three weeks back. It’s a bitter blow because there is no greater gamechanger in world cricket than the man from Ahmedabad with a quirky walk-/run-up and action. Often, Bumrah’s presence creates the pressure that allows bowlers operating from the other end to garner wickets – that’s when Bumrah himself isn’t cutting a swathe through the opposition batting. Without him, India’s chances of extending their winning streak in Sri Lanka have taken that much of a beating, necessitating the other bowlers to step up and share the burden so that Shubman Gill isn’t left wondering who to turn to – in every sense of the term – for the breakthroughs so crucial to winning Test matches.
Injury management has become a massive bone of contention, with a convenient accusatory finger pointed at the CoE, a soft target when the actual ‘culprits’, for want of a better word, are more firmly entrenched within the contours of the national side and whose task it is to monitor the fitness and recovery from injury of those who are playing international cricket on a reasonably regular basis.
In the last few days, rumours that Agarkar’s tenure as chief selector might come to an end in the next month or so have gained traction. Insiders say the former India paceman had indicated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India as early as in February that he would like to be relieved of his responsibilities in September, though there is no clarity of any nature on why so when he still has a couple of years of the maximum permissible five to serve out. Agarkar took over as the chairman of the senior selection panel in the middle of 2023 and his stint has seen some grand highs and several debilitating lows, some of them alongside Gambhir and others independent of the latter, when Rahul Dravid was the head coach.
Among the terrific accomplishments are two T20 World Cup trophy runs and an unbeaten charge through the draw at the Champions Trophy in Dubai in March 2005. The lows, notwithstanding the 6-0 T20I drubbing in Ireland and England, have largely come in Test cricket, and that too at home – 0-3 against New Zealand in October-November 2024, 0-2 against South Africa in November last year. India have been hoist with their own petard, continuing to operate in the erroneous and misplaced conviction that they are still the best players of the turning ball when the ground realities paint an entirely different picture.
All of a sudden, CoE boss Laxman’s name has cropped up as a potential successor to Agarkar, just as it had more than two years back when it was taken for granted that he would take over as the head coach of the national side from his friend Dravid. Laxman isn’t coaching-averse – he wasn’t in 2024 either – but perhaps having to spend so much time away from home didn’t appeal to him. In a stand-in capacity, first for Dravid and more recently for Gambhir, he has done a stellar job. In so many ways, Laxman is a bit like Ravi Shastri, a man for a crisis. Laxman’s reputation as a crisis man was firmly established during his playing days when he bailed the team out of a spot more than once, several of them with the bowlers – he has never liked the word ‘tailenders’ – for company. Whether Agarkar is actually contemplating stepping down and, in that eventuality, whether Laxman is the preferred and willing choice, remains to be seen. But it is clearly this artificial uncertainty that Indian cricket could do without as it approaches a crucial phase in the five-day game with nine Tests lined up in the next seven months, four of them away in Sri Lanka and New Zealand.
In some respects, it would seem as if the misadventures in the UK have forced a pressing of the panic button when the crying need is for calm heads and an acceptance that while the results didn’t go according to plan, it doesn’t mean the end of the world. India contributed to their misery in England, especially, choosing not to respect the conditions or the quality of the opposition bowling – Jofra Archer on tracks that have a bit in them is a far different proposition from Archer of Rajasthan Royals plying his wares on batting beauties in the IPL. Instead of embracing equanimity, there is, those in the team insist, a shrill insistence on outcomes, which can never be a positive development.
In strict confidence, some of the more established players have hinted at a feeling of insecurity because of the mixed messaging from the regular think-tank, which will be without two established names when the tour of Sri Lanka kicks off on Friday with a three-day First Class fixture. Assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, who came on board nearly two years back when Gambhir took over from Dravid, and fielding coach T. Dileep, who has been with the national squad for a lot longer, are now surplus to requirement. How the players, already feeling the pinch after being pushed to a corner, adapt to this new normal, however temporary it might be, will determine how well they acquit themselves in a land where India are unbeaten in a Test series since 2010.
For Gill, this is a huge challenge, a big test of his batsmanship but also his man-management skills and his tactical awareness. With Bumrah only playing three of five Tests in England last summer, Gill came through with flying colours on his maiden foray into Test captaincy. That he led from the front, with a mountain of runs (754), helped. After making elementary if understandable errors in his first couple of matches, Gill gradually grew into his role and was in complete command by the time of the last Test at the Oval, when he eked out match-winning and series-levelling performances from experienced pacer Mohammed Siraj and relative newcomer Prasidh Krishna. He led in only one of two Tests against South Africa, missing the huge rout (by a record 408 runs) in Guwahati with a neck injury, and therefore doesn’t carry a great deal of baggage. But he himself hasn’t played a Test in Sri Lanka – very few in his squad have, given that India’s last five-day outing in the Emerald Isle was in 2017—and this will be India’s first Tests since last November (not counting the one-off game against Afghanistan in New Chandigarh in June). India have their task cut out on the field, against a Sri Lankan side with so much riding on the outcome. Gill’s lads will be well advised to ignore off-field distractions and focus on the personnel available rather than mope about those who aren’t. Transition and inexperience will no longer cut ice. Few will know that better than Gambhir, feisty and combative but clearly aware that his CV is anything but impressive, let alone exemplary.
Published – August 07, 2026 07:30 am IST
