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'Reports about India coach and BCCI chairman of selectors say...': WV Raman says selection on judgment, not assessment
Stuck between a rock and a hard place in his young coaching career, Gautam Gambhir received some advice from WV Raman.
The Indian cricket team finds itself in a precarious position as two Test home losses in the last three series has forced some difficult questions to be asked about a team in transition. There are no easy answers to be found – there is still plenty of high-quality talent, but a colection of things going wrong has led to a reckoning following embarrassment at the hands of South Africa.
Former Indian national cricketer and women’s team head coach WV Raman weighed in on the changes that must be made in Gautam Gambhir’s tenure, trying to place workable solutions and the small decisions that must be made to steady the boat after a rocky start to his Test career as coach.
In a column for Indian Express, Raman wrote about a key concern of his being the lack of clarity regarding the distinction between the three formats, and specified how specialisation and clarity were key for players having defined, achievable goals rather than a more open-ended approach.
Problem of too many for Gambhir
“It’s a tough proposition to adapt to different formats. That is something that we’ll have to concede. But at the same time, you get reports which say that the chairman and the coach and the support staff have been chalking out a route map for over a year,” wrote Raman.
“So, they must have really identified who will obviously fit for each format. If that doesn’t happen, then obviously, these kinds of decisions are based more on judgment rather than assessment.”
Referring to how many all-rounders and multi-skill players had been opted for by Gambhir in his tenure, Raman expressed that it often presents an all-or-nothing approach that doesn’t really solve the problems that Test cricket poses by design. Gambhir has been criticised for creating teams with illusion of depth but no real substance, and this was a point Raman echoed.
“There has been a consistency in that a lot of multi-dimensional cricketers have been preferred for Test cricket as well. And at times what happens is, if you have too many options, it can also lead to confusion… you really don’t know who to slot where,” he wrote.
'Does not really sync with need of the hour…'
Raman proposed that rather than taking a player’s face-value judgement based on what they can offer, Indian cricket must place emphasis on assessing conditions, situation, opposition, and finding a balance based on that fact.
“I think the selection also has happened more on judgement than assessment… Which means, you’re not going to wait and see how a player goes on about his cricket or how he’s improving and what it is that he can do on the kind of surfaces that you’re going to play on. So, that is something that perhaps does not really sync with the need of the hour,” explained Raman.
Elaborating on this, Raman explained that the combinations of Test cricket must be met with a greater understanding, which includes assessing the pitch and the surface, and making judgement calls often fails to take that into account. He also questioned the all-rounder happy selection process diluting India’s batting quality.
“Playing just three specialist batters, I saw a couple of sandwiches shot for the picnic. Because generally, on a track where it’s absolutely loaded in favour of bowlers, you would not require more than four or five bowling options. And I think there were a plethora of options available,” wrote the former Indian cricketer.
