The curious case of Gautam Gambhir – a comeback on the cards?

Gautam Gambhir

It can’t be sheer coincidence that the fortune of the entire band of ‘pros’ in the World Cup 2011 winning Indian squad took a turn for the worse once the jubilation wore off, and the team was asked to move on to places like England and Australia.

A steady erosion in India’s status as a time-tested Test champion was set in motion soon after an overly jubilant World Cup winning squad ventured into the foreign lands – this precipitous decline in India’s position on the world stage paved the way for a wave of breakdowns inside the very core of the team.

Sehwag, Zaheer, Gambhir and Harbhajan were the most serious casualties of this destructive trend – all of them were once indispensable to India’s hopes of lifting the coveted World Cup after 28 long years; but in no time they were reduced to pathetic shadows of their former selves, scrambling to somehow rest on their past laurels and move ahead.

Except Zaheer, who has recently made a comeback to the Indian Test squad primarily due to the glaring paucity of talent in the team’s bowling ranks, none of the other three has found a way to break into the playing eleven of a refurbished Team India.

Gautam Gambhir, especially, has been the most unfortunate – in spite of scoring big runs in the domestic circuit on a consistent basis, he has not been able to swerve the selectors’ eyes away from a lackluster Murali Vijay at the top of the order in Test matches; his case for an ODI spot has been made later in this article.

But, let’s take a fresh look at why exactly Gambhir’s case deserves more attention than what it is receiving at present. In order to perform an accurate reconnaissance of this case, let us first take our mind off the following issues–

1. The hoopla that the cricket crazy India was pandering itself with, while the team was devouring oppositions till the last morsel, on familiar home conditions for the last few months at a stretch.
2. The fact that India is perched high atop the ODI rankings and placed close to the top ranking Proteas in the longer format of the game .
3. The fact that almost every member of the Indian team, prior to the start of the South African tour, seemed worthy of a place in the ICC top 10 lists for batsmen, bowlers and all rounders.
4. The fact that the entire team ‘seems’ to be in sublime touch at the moment – it all appears to be picture perfect!

If the time that Gautam Gambhir is spending in isolation now, away from the international limelight and in the ghastly wilderness of the Indian domestic circuit, is not a punitive measure aimed at ‘teaching him the right lessons’ for his ‘colossal failure’ in the aftermath of the WC 2011, then one is inclined to believe that the one of the reasons enumerated above must be responsible for his protracted exile .

Let’s see why, or rather let’s understand why he deserves to be treated as a genuine contender for the opener’s spot, in atleast one format of the game, for Team India. To accomplish this task of understanding most effectively, we shall consider the credibility of Gambhir’s claim for a spot in the team against that of the most vulnerable member.

Test Cricket – Gautam Gambhir v Murali Vijay

It doesn’t take the percipience of a Harsha Bhogle or an Ian Chappell to understand that the otherwise-classy Murali Vijay’s apparent discomfort in foreign conditions is not any once-in-a-blue-moon occurrence. Since his glorious debut against Australia in Nagpur, five years ago, the highest that Vijay has averaged in an overseas series is 33, when he managed to cough up 99 runs in the three innings he played against Sri Lanka in 2010.

Interestingly, that is also the highest tally of runs that he has ever accrued in an away-Test series since his debut in 2008. Juxtapose such dismal away-record with the consistent run of poor form that this man has been experiencing in the latest Ranji season, and you shall find yourself walking on thin ice while trying to cook explanations apparently responsible for the selectors deciding to go ahead with Vijay, instead of boosting the confidence of a resurgent Gambhir, coming fresh out of an impressive domestic season.

Ah, and I forgot – what was the elementary cause behind Gambhir’s unfortunate exclusion from the Indian team? It was poor batting in two back-to-back Test series in England and Australia in the six months that followed the World Cup.

So, the apparent benchmark for exclusion of Gambhir and selection of Vijay as a Test opener remains the same – but the logic takes a beating while throwing light on the gorge that exists between an out-of-favour grizzled team warrior like Gambhir and an overly pampered Murali Vijay. If you are thinking about Team India’s newfound zeal for recruiting young blood as the probable answer, forget about it – Murali Vijay is not a spring chicken anymore!

Gautam Gambhir and Rohit Sharma

The shorter formats – Gautam Gambhir v Rohit Sharma

Apparently, one must summon the chutzpah of Julius Caesar before entertaining Gambhir as a probable contender for the opening spot – the unassailable Rohit Sharma seems to have taken on the mantle of Sachin Tendulkar, emulating him in all aspects of the game (even the sponsor of the beloved willow). Besides, some have already hailed Rohit and Dhawan as the best opening pair that India has ever had!

But, is India’s opening combination really that unperturbed that the team need not look at any viable alternatives for the near future (oops, that actually means the WC 2015!)? No, it isn’t – look deep and you shall discover a vast underbelly of troubling questions there.

Rohit Sharma’s glorious ascent to the highest echelons of fame in ODI cricket, as a newfound opener for the team, has been materialized mainly as a result of the home-heavy calendar that the BCCI had prepared for the team in 2013. An unending stretch of home matches for a struggling Indian batsman like Rohit Sharma can be termed a divine intervention, considering the beating that his career had taken in the last two years.

Even though there is no denying the fact that Rohit has done exceedingly well as an ODI opener in the last 10 months, the very simple fact that he is yet to prove his mettle against the naughty red cherry in outlandish conditions straightaway invites a debate on the tactics of the team for the upcoming foreign tours as well as the WC 2015 – to be played in Australia/New Zealand.

Rohit’s uncouth handling of Steyn and co in the ODI matches played so far in South Africa is ample evidence of the immaturity with which India had wrested the entire future of the opening spot on the fragile shoulders of this Mumbai lad.

Considering all available options at disposal for this crucial opening spot, there can be no doubting the fact that Gambhir is the one man who can be of most use to the team in the upcoming hard days overseas.

This, however, is not equivalent to proposing outright exclusion of an otherwise brilliant Rohit Sharma just because of his failure in South Africa so far – it just means that the team needs to prepare itself for contingencies during the next 18 months and the ideal manufacturer of a bailout package in such conditions can be Gautam Gambhir.

Succinctly put, it would not be wise to keep him off the radar for an unduly long period of time and damage his steadily recuperating confidence in any way.

The doldrums in which the Indian team had found itself stuck for a quite a long time may have vanished into oblivion now, but the unsavory memories of traveling abroad shall continue to haunt us in the coming days.

Looking at the ‘experience quotient’ of the team at present, one is tempted to state that the presence of a fit and motivated Gambhir at the top of the order may do India a word of good when it tours New Zealand and England in 2014 and then launches into its World Cup defense campaign in 2015.