India's sense of invincibility has been severely damaged by yet another Test loss at home. India has played 53 Tests at home in the last ten years, and they have lost eight of them. Four of these losses have occurred since Gautam Gambhir replaced the amiable Rahul Dravid as India's head coach.
In his 18-Test reign thus far, Gambhir has presided over seven wins, nine losses, and two draws. However, the team has emerged as a dominant force as far as limited-over format are concerned, particularly the T20Is.
Gambhir's home Test record has put him under the radar, but Sourav Ganguly has defended the struggling India head coach and rejected the idea that he could be dismissed. “There’s no question of sacking Gautam Gambhir at this stage, but there is no question that they have to get together and work hard to win Test matches because on flat pitches it’s a lot harder," Ganguly noted while speaking to Sports Tak.
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Ganguly pointed out that while the same side performed admirably on flatter fields during their tour of England earlier this year, they have recently been closely tested on more difficult grounds at home.
“In India, you will see how quickly the game changes on Day 4-Day 5, so they have to be patient on that. They have the bowling attack to get 20 wickets as you saw at the Oval on the last day, as you saw in Edgbaston," Ganguly said.
“Gautam as a coach and Shubman as a captain did exceptionally well on flat England pitches, and I firmly believe they can do well in India as well," he added.
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The former India skipper and ex-BCCI president opposed India's call to promote all-rounder Washington Sundar to the crucial No. 3 position in the batting order. “They must look at the batting order. I have a lot of time for Washington Sundar, I think he’s a tremendous cricketer, but I’m not sure number 3 is his position to play in the long term in Test cricket," said Ganguly.
The team fielded four spinners at Eden Gardens but Ganguly feels that India will benefit from strengthening their batting order on fields where spinners call the shots. “That’s the area Gautam needs to look at, he doesn’t need four spinners in India. When it spins and spinners can bowl 25-30 overs, you don’t need four spinners. Keep your best 5 batters as your top 5 batsmen," he said.
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