Gambhir breaks silence on dressing room rift ahead of final Test

SYDNEY: India’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, finally broke his silence on the dressing room rift ahead of the final Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

In a pre-match press conference, Gautam Gambhir rejected the reports of infighting between the players of Indian cricket team.

Gautam Gambhir claimed that things are normal and there is no rivalry in the team, emphasizing the need of not disclosing the confidential matters.

He said “Everything under control and debates between coach and player should remain in the dressing room. These are just reports, not the truth. Stern words and honest conversations are a part of the game, but they don’t belong in the public domain”.

Responding to a question about the team’s performance during the tour, he seemed satisfied.

The head coach said “If batting and bowling didn’t do well, we wouldn’t have won a Test match or we wouldn’t have been 2-1 down. We could have been in a worse situation. So as I said, I don’t think that there is so much to worry about,”

The fifth and final AUS v IND Test is scheduled for January 3-7 in Sydney, with both sides still in the race to take home the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

India will need to win the game to retain the trophy while any result other than a loss will help Australia take the trophy home.

Meanwhile, Indian media reported that Gautam Gambhir was not the first choice to coach India, instead VVS Laxman was under consideration for the job.

“He was never BCCI’s first choice (it was VVS Laxman) and some of the well-known overseas names didn’t want to coach all three formats, so he was a compromise. Obviously, some other compulsions were also there,” Indian media quoted a BCCI official as saying.

According to the report, Gautam Gambhir’s future as the head coach might be in doubt if India fail to return to winning ways before the Champions Trophy 2025 in February-March.

“There is a Test match to be played and then there is Champions Trophy 2025. If the performance doesn’t improve, even Gautam Gambhir’s position wouldn’t be safe,” the BCCI official was quoted as saying.