Indian cricket has seen retirements come in waves, but no one saw the retirements of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. One can argue that both were at their lowest in red ball cricket when they walked away, so the decision was not completely out of the blue. Even then, watching two giants slip out of the format without a farewell Test felt brutal. The sport has always been unforgiving that way. Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman left without curtain calls. A decade later, Rohit and Kohli got the same ending.
Their dwindling returns in Australia suggested this was around the corner. Kohli’s lean patch had stretched far longer than anyone wanted to admit. Rohit too looked like a player trying to squeeze one last run from a slowing career. So when the BCCI moved towards a younger Test group, few expected resistance. Kohli announced his exit a month before the England series. Rohit followed soon after. That was that.
Manoj Tiwary blames Gautam Gambhir
However, in a stunning claim, former India batter Manoj Tiwary has asserted that neither Rohit nor Kohli actually wanted to leave and that the atmosphere around the team pushed them out. It is not the first time he has said something like this. His words came after Gautam Gambhir, now the head coach, blamed India’s Test struggles on transition and technical issues within the batting unit after losing to South Africa in the first Test in Kolkata.
Tiwary did not mince words. “This whole ‘transition phase’ talk I don’t agree with it. India doesn’t need a transition. New Zealand or Zimbabwe need transition. Our domestic cricket is full of talented performers waiting for chances. Because of this unnecessary transition, our star players like Virat and Rohit who wanted to keep playing Test cricket and protect its sanctity, slowly stepped back because of the atmosphere created around them,” he told India Today.
He went further, criticising Gambhir’s comments on technique after the loss in Kolkata. “You cannot blame players’ technique after losing. As a coach, your job is to teach, not to blame. If the batters didn’t have solid defence, why weren’t they trained before the match? When he played, Gambhir himself was a good player of spin, so he should teach more. The results aren’t in India’s favour,” he added.
Tension builds before must-win Guwahati Test
Following India’s crushing defeat to the Proteas in the first Test, Gautam Gambhir attended the press conference and defended the talked-about pitch. He divulged that the curator made the exact pitch that the team wanted him to make but the Indian batters could’ve applied themselves more. The head coach mentioned that players with solid defence and temparament should’ve scored runs on that wicket.
The comments completely saw Gambhir send his team under the bus. To be fair to the Indian players, the pitch was an aberration. It wasn’t watered for almost a week in the lead up to the contest. Washington Sundar amassed 60 runs in the Kolkata Test; no one scored more runs than him. Just one fifty was scored in the entire match, by Temba Bavuma. Each wicket fell at an average of 15.63. By all means, this doesn’t look like a good wicket to bat on, but Gambhir thought otherwise.
All this comes as India trail 0-1 at home and are scrambling to fix their batting. On Tuesday, Sai Sudharsan and Dhruv Jurel trained with only one pad on, an old method to sharpen footwork against sharp turn. Gambhir watched Sudharsan closely during a long three-hour session. With Shubman Gill unlikely to play, the left-hander may return to the XI. India need a win in Guwahati to avoid back to back home series defeats.
