Herschelle Gibbs, a former cricketer from South Africa, was direct in his message to the BCCI, calling for a significant revamp in Indian cricket to enable the team bounce back from its red-ball cricket slump. His social media message went viral the day after India's 0-2 loss to the Proteas, their second home whitewash in a year.
India has lost five of its last seven Test matches, including two whitewashes under head coach Gautam Gambhir, and their reputation as a formidable force at home has diminished.
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Following the loss, which cast doubt on India's strategy, particularly in light of the retirements of Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Virat Kohli, Gibbs called on the BCCI to shorten the IPL window and allow for more Test matches throughout the year.
In an X-post, Gibbs wrote, “Shorten IPL and play more test cricket.”
The IPL has increasingly enlarged its window over the years, both in time and number of matches, impacting the international calendar. There were 59 games in the first season, which lasted only six weeks. The tournament now lasts at least ten weeks, frequently extending into June, with ten teams and more doubleheaders. Indian players' difficulties in lengthier forms are sometimes attributed to a longer IPL window, which reduces the number of slots available for international matches and leaves them with less rest.
India's 12-year home Test series winning streak ended in November of last year when New Zealand pulled off a remarkable 3-0 clean sweep. India went into a downturn after the loss, losing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in almost 10 years and being disqualified from the World Test Championship (WTC) final.
Twelve months later, India is in a similar predicament after losing 0-2 to the South African team lead by Temba Bavuma, seriously jeopardizing their chances of making it to the WTC final. After winning just four of their first nine games, India fell to sixth place in the standings.
India's batting weaknesses at home were further exposed in the series, as the squad averaged just 15.23 in the two Test matches against South Africa. After their home series average of 12.42 against New Zealand in 2002–03, this is their second-lowest series average ever.
India's problems were exacerbated by the fact that they did not score a century in either Test. After the New Zealand series in 1969/70 and 1995/96, this is only the third time in history that no individual hundreds were scored in a home Test series.
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