‘Trying To Fathom the Thought Process’ – Ravi Shastri Slams India Coach Gautam Gambhir As South Africa Dominate 2nd IND vs SA Test [WATCH]

Ravi Shastri lashed out at Gautam Gambhir and the team management after India’s continued questionable tactics throughout the ongoing Test series against South Africa. From playing XI selections to batting positions to bowlers’ usage, India have shown no consistency with their tactics and kept making basic mistakes.

As they endured another poor run with the bat in the first innings of the Guwahati Test – after conceding 489 – Shastri explained on air how India didn’t utilise the spin resources properly and could have instead gone with a specialist batter in Kolkata. He was also disappointed with Washington Sundar’s batting position in both games.

“I hadn’t understood the thought process. When they look back at the series, some of the selections – still trying to fathom out the thought process. For example, they played four spinners in Kolkata and bowled one of the spinners for just one over. Ideally, they could have gone with another specialist batsman. Similarly here – Washington batted at 3 in the last Test, he could have easily batted at 4 here now that you have a No.3. He is no No.8, far better than No.8.”

In the Kolkata Test, Sundar bowled only a solitary over across two innings and batted at No.3, which didn’t make sense because Sai Sudharsan was a better choice in that case due to being a superior batter. Now, he has been demoted to No.8, with the likes of Nitish Kumar Reddy batting ahead of him, again making no sense at all.

Why Ravi Shastri rightly criticised Gautam Gambhir and the India management

Under Gautam Gambhir, India’s home dominance is completely gone, and they lose matches far too often. As if drubbing against New Zealand last year wasn’t enough, South Africa are on the verge of handing India another whitewash and have completely outplayed India so far in the second game.

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• ‘Trying To Fathom the Thought Process’ – Ravi Shastri Slams India Coach Gautam Gambhir As South Africa Dominate 2nd IND vs SA Test [WATCH]

India brought in Sai Sudharsan and Nitish Kumar Reddy for Shubman Gill and Axar Patel, respectively, in Guwahati. Firstly, they again underutilised Nitish’s bowling, giving him only six overs, even when other bowlers toiled close to 30 overs across five and a half sessions.

Then, Nitish was also promoted to No.7 ahead of Sundar, which can mean two things: either India overestimated Sundar’s batting capabilities in Kolkata or lacked vision about how to maximise the resources. For Gambhir, batting orders are overrated anyway, which, recent results show, clearly aren’t in any format.

The constant urge to have more batting and bowling options than specialists while trying too many things has resulted in poor management and tactics. Then, their pitch selections have also often been too extreme, which hasn’t allowed batters or bowlers to settle and grow due to a lack of consistency, resulting in poor performances at home.

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