It is ironic in a way that most times its the opponent who expose the batsmen weakness and every other team just latches onto those tactics to trouble him but in Gambhir’s case, its him who exposed his weakness to all. He has got a huge technique problem that will make it very hard for him to stay at the wicket longer and even more to score runs. He is neither going forward or back when defending the balls, irrespective of its length and its a clear sign of low confidence. To top his problems, the balls that need to be played with a straight bat are either played across or with an angled bat. In a way, Gambhir is looking to score runs off every ball and in hind sight, its a reflection of his bad concentration that he doesn’t know which ball to hit, which to defend and which to leave.
Gambhir is going down like Harbhajan was a couple of years ago. Harbhajan too had both technique and confidence problems like not flighting the ball and angling the ball down the leg-side more often that completely hurt his chances to take wickets. Harbhajan should have been dropped to get his rhythm and confidence back in 2008 itself but the Indian team let him rot. I don’t see Harbhajan coming back with confidence and rhythm anytime in the near future. When I say ‘in the near future’, I mean at least a year from now.
Hopefully, India doesn’t do the same with Gambhir. Scoring runs apart, I can’t remember Gambhir batting for long periods of time in the middle for at least a year now. Whether he succeeds or not in the remaining matches of the ongoing test series against Australia, he should be sent back to India to correct his technique and get his confidence back rather than playing him in the ODI series. At his best, we all know what Gambhir can do but now its time for school.
I don’t know why but strangely every player who was talked to be India’s next captain in the last decade found their way out of the team very soon. Players like Yuvraj and Sehwag are good enough to make a comeback but Kaif was a forgotten hero. Gambhir has already made one comeback to the Indian team in his short career and another one will be very tough unless he works harder.
Either Rahane or Mukund should be given a long run in the place of Gambhir in the test team. My pick will be Mukund because he is an old school boy who loves to play long innings and he did that time and again in domestic matches with big scores for Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy. He has got a very good defence and temperament which are essential for openers to succeed in different conditions. With him being a left hander, India can maintain the right-left combination at top.Its time to welcome the new boys into the India team!
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