'Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli built this team': Tiwary blasts Gambhir for Champions Trophy, Asia Cup reminder
Manoj Tiwary went all out at Gautam Gambhir, questioning his credentials as head coach after India suffered another humiliation at home.
Fortress no more! India, once labelled as a "final frontier" by then-Australian captain Steve Waugh in 2001, has now become an easy destination for SENA countries to come and secure Test victories with ease. The recently concluded two-match Test series between India and South Africa saw the hosts go down 0-2, resulting in a second series whitewash in a span of just one year. As expected, the knives are out, and only one individual is facing the most criticism: head coach Gautam Gambhir.
Under his reign, India has lost five out of the last seven home Tests, three against New Zealand and two against the Proteas. Gambhir, to his credit, fronted up to the media after the horrific 408-run loss in Guwahati, but held back no punches, defending his record as the head coach. Gambhir reminded that while the decision to keep him as a coach lies with the BCCI, he is the same man who led India to win the Asia Cup, the Champions Trophy, and draw the Test series in England.
As the dust begins to settle, The Hindustan Times spoke to former India batter Manoj Tiwary, a domestic cricket stalwart, who minced no words in saying that the time has come for the BCCI to look at someone else to take charge of the Test team.
"To be honest, the writing was on the wall. It had to happen. I knew things were not going well; the process they want to follow is not the right strategy or plan. There was a lot of chopping and changing, which was very evident. That could have been in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, home series against New Zealand and now against South Africa," said Tiwary.
"Absolutely. There is no question about it. (whether India should have a separate red-ball coach). It's high time they take this decision to save Indian Test cricket. That's the bottom line."
Gambhir might have issued a passionate defence of his coaching record, but Tiwary believes he cannot take the credit for the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup wins, as the white-ball teams were already well-established, with the bulk of the work having been done by Rohit Sharma and the former coach, Rahul Dravid.
"Apparently, Gambhir is claiming that he got a series draw in England with a young team. In my opinion, the England series draw was not a great thing for us. It wasn't a good result; the kind of players we had, it was England who made the mistake of playing too many shots on the last day. They could have easily won the series 3-1. There is no great achievement in his tenure so far," said Tiwary.
"I saw a clip of him claiming that he has won the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. This team was built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and, before that, Virat Kohli. Even if Gambhir wasn't the coach of Team India for these two tournaments, India would have won anyway because the team was already made. It is very unfortunate to see a white-ball mentor leading India as a head coach. If you don't have the experience at the ground level, how do you expect to give results at the top level? It is next to impossible," he added.
The infamous Sitanshu Kotak press conference
Ahead of the second Test against South Africa, batting coach Sitanshu Kotak addressed the media, laying bare the insecurities within the dressing room, seemingly throwing the batters under the bus. He protected head coach Gambhir, saying people who are criticising him possibly have some "agendas." This comment has not gone down well with Tiwary, who said that the job of the coaches is to protect their players and not say anything publicly.
"Sitanshu Kotak defended Gambhir in the pre-match press conference. I don't know why he was defending him. If people are criticising him, then Gambhir should be the one to come out and speak on his own to defend himself. Blaming the batters, obviously, a good coach won't do that in front of the media. They will always try to protect the players. It should rather be done internally, face-to-face. It's obvious players haven't done well. But you have to find the root cause of where it all started," he said.
