T20 Mindset? Reasons Why Gautam Gambhir is Failing as India's Test Coach

Ind vs SA: Apart from drawing the Test series in England and beating a weak West Indies side at home, India coach Gautam Gambhir does not have much to show when it comes to red-ball cricket. The two forgettable moments during Gambhir's tenure thus far would be India's humiliating whitewash against New Zealand and more recently, the loss against South Africa at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. For years, India have been extremely dominating at home and hence most traveling teams consider it to be the final frontier. But now, it seems like it has been breached. Is Gambhir to be blamed for it because he is the coach of the team and has to own the decisions he makes - yes. 

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Gambhir is Failing as a Test Coach? 

Gambhir, during his playing days, was considered a better white-ball player than the other way around. No doubt, he has played 58 Tests and that is a lot, yet he was excelling more in white-ball cricket comparatively. As Team India coach, he seems to be full of ideas and is willing to experiment at the drop of a hat - well, that is not how Test cricket is played. How can you play Washington Sundar at No. 3 when you have a specialist in Sai Sudarshan for that very position? Not just that, knowing very well that the current Indian team does not have enough quality to play spin like the Indian teams from the past - he still asked the curator to prepare a spin-friendly strip - hoping to decimate South Africa - that backfired and how. 

The T20 Mindset

Too much experimenting in Tests shows that one is unsure. This is not T20, to win Test matches consistently - you need a settled team of specialists. In this case, that is what it seems - Gambhir seems a little clueless. As coach of the Indian team, Gambhir has been part of 18 Tests with the side emerging victorious in merely seven of them, which is not a stat he would be proud off. 

India and South Africa will face off against each other in the Guwahati Test, which will begin on November 22.