Basit Ali has criticised Team India’s batting coach for not doing his job.© AFP
The Indian men’s cricket team, led by head coach Gautam Gambhir, has come under severe criticism following the Test series whitewash against New Zealand at home. For the first time ever, India lost a series at home with a scoreline 3-0, comprising of as many games. Amid the ongoing debate surrounding the spin-friendly tracks, former Pakistan player Basit Ali questioned the role of Gambhir and his coaching staff. He highlighted India’s batting failures, particularly against spin, and criticised the batting coach for not doing his job.
“India ka batting coach hai kaun, jo yeh nahi bata pa raha ki Test cricket session to session hoti hai? Bas har over 12 run bana lo, 10 run bana lo. Yeh koi cricket hai yaar! (who is India’s batting coach, not able to advise the batsmen that you approach Tests session by session. Trying to score 10-12 runs every over is not cricket),” Basit said in a video on his YouTube channel.
Gambhir’s coaching staff comprises of Abhishek Nayar and Dutchman Ryan ten Doeschate. However, there is no clarity as to who performs the role of the batting coach.
Basit also slammed India’s batting coach, if there’s any, for not having proper dialogue with young players, especially the likes of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
“Is there no one to tell players like Jaiswal and Gill that when you reach 30-35, then don’t get out playing loose shots, try to play out the session? Because only a set batsman can be successful (on such tracks), at that time he is your Bradman. But it seems they wait and think that there is still Virat Kohli to come, Rishabh Pant too, also KL Rahul and Sarfaraz; but on these tracks, the one who is set is the big player,” he added.
New Zealand spinner Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel ran through the Indian line-up. While Santner took a match-haul of 13 wickets in the Pune Test, Patel bagged 11 in Mumbai.
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