Follow UsIndia have their back against the wall in the ongoing Manchester Test against England. A loss at Old Trafford would see them lose yet another series with Gautam Gambhir as the head coach.
Former India and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Manoj Tiwary believes that the chopping and changing under Gambhir has led to a lack of stability and trust within the team, and that is reflecting in the results as well.
“There is no stability, and he is not able to trust his players for a long duration. His thinking of playing part-time all-rounders and winning a Test match is not possible. The players who have played for a long time, including me, I’m a strong believer of specialist players," Tiwary told IANS.
Further explaining things that have transpired since Gambhir took over, Tiwary said, “Since the arrival of the head coach, there is a pattern of dropping underperforming players from the squad and adding players from the outside. This we’ve seen in the India-Zealand series, when we brought Washington Sundar from outside over Ashwin, who was in the squad.
“On the Australia tour, we played Devdutt Padikkal and Harshit Rana. Now, Harshit is missing and not among favourites anymore as we’re playing Anshul Kamboj in this Test.”
Tiwary, who has played 15 white-ball matches for India, also reckons that the team management needs to end their obsession with fielding all-rounders instead of specialists in the team, as he feels such players will win Tests for the team.
“I have said it earlier also that Test match is a game of specialists, but we’re keeping them out and trusting all-rounders more," the 39-year-old said.
Under Gambhir, India suffered a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand at home and also lost the Border-Gavaskar Test series 3-1 Down Under. A loss in Manchester will see India lose their third series on the trot.
England are in a commanding position heading into Day 4 as they are ahead by 186 runs with Ben Stokes (77*) and Liam Dawson (21*) at the crease.