Coach Gautam Gambhir smashes the ball out of the park

Offering a straight bat in cricket is a reference to being defensive. On Monday, Gautam Gambhir was anything but defensive as he handled the media press conference with confidence and aggression in Mumbai. Having faced fulsome flak from the media for the failure against the Black Caps in the three-Test series, Gambhir had gone silent. No, not today, as the coach smashed the ball out of the park in typical T20 fashion, while replying.

When he was asked about comments made by former Australian captain Ricky Ponting on Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s poor form, Gambhir shot back by saying what does the Aussie have to do with Indian cricket. It was a brutal reply, for most of the Aussie cricketers have been hanging around in India, hoping to get some contract or the other in the IPL. With GMR set to control Delhi Capitals again for three years from 2025, and not JSW, the first thing they did was to get rid of Ponting. At the same time, they also clipped the wings of Sourav Ganguly, who will now only deal with the WPL team of the Delhi franchise.

Ponting has moved to Punjab Kings and been making noise like an empty vessel. So Gambhir did well to tell the media Ponting had nothing to do with his two superstar batters. Asked on pressure, Gambhir said he was ready for it, and social media is the last thing he is worried about.  He talked of energy and confidence in the Indian dressing room. This made great sense, even if it was a tactical ploy. Nobody expected India to defeat the Aussies in 2021, so Gambhir is hoping the Indian team will produce a performance which can shut up critics. None dared to ask the coach if he had been grilled by the BCCI bigwigs at a purported six-hour meeting three days ago. The face which Gambhir put up was much needed since half the battles won pertain to the mind. Sure enough, if the cocky Aussie media dares to needle Gambhir, he will come up with a riposte Down Under.

Gambhir ducked under a bouncer, again, to borrow a cricket phrase when he was asked on Rohit Sharma’s availability for the first Test, starting on November 22 in Perth. He simply said, there was no immediate update on Rohit now. What he did make clear was, if Rohit does not fly out in time for the Perth Test,  Jasprit Bumrah will be the captain. It was not a vote of confidence for Bumrah but how the Indian think-tank wants to hold cards close to the chest.

Media interactions are supposed to be interactive, but the pattern which was followed made it clear none dared to grill Gambhir. He is backing his side and not willing to look too much into failures. Maybe, it would have been pertinent to ask Gambhir on split captaincy, since that is also doing the rounds. The question was never propped up, so Gambhir did not have to utter a word on it. It suggests, he is going to fly out high on confidence.

Of course, where Gambhir opened up further was on who will open the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal  if Rohit does not fly out on time. The prompt answer was KL Rahul would open the innings. Cricket fans watched in dismay when Rahul’s stumps were dislodged recently in an India A game Down Under. Gambhir has worked with KL Rahul in the Lucknow IPL team and feels he can be pushed right up to open. Everyone knows, Rahul has batted in various positions, so if he has to go up early, the coach has already given him approval.

At the end of it, when Sanjay Manjrekar put out a post on X (Twitter) that it would have been better if the BCCI sent someone other than Gambhir for the press conference, it was nasty. Manjrekar has also got into this habit of baiting players and coaches these days and was suggesting when Ajit Agarkar or Rohit do not come for the press conference, Gambhir should stay away. It was in bad taste, since Gambhir has the right to address the media as coach. One does not know what will happen in Australia, but if Gambhir had to present a confident pose, he did it on Monday. It was much needed.