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Ravi Shastri has slammed Gautam Gambhir’s selection tactics in India’s Test series against South Africa.
News18
Ravi Shastri has heavily criticised the Indian men’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir, for his poor selection choices in the ongoing two-Test series against South Africa. Shastri, who is considered one of the most successful coaches, said he has been ‘trying to fathom the thought process’ behind some of Gambhir’s calls but hasn’t been able to make any sense of them.
Shastri’s anger was focused on India’s newfound obsession with all-rounders in Test cricket. Since Gambhir took over the team last year, all-rounders like Nitish Kumar Reddy and Harshit Rana have grown in stature and value, while specialists like Sarfaraz Khan have seen their fortunes dwindle.
In the South Africa series, India picked three spin all-rounders and promoted one of them, Washington Sundar, to number three by dropping a specialist batter in Sai Sudharsan. After a 30-run defeat, they made a couple of changes in the second Test, replacing the injured Shubman Gill with Sudharsan, but maintaining the all-rounder dependence in the lower-order, with Nitish Kumar Reddy substituting Axar Patel.
As Sudharsan returned to number three, Sundar was pushed back down to number eight.
“Just doesn’t make sense,” Shastri said on air in the second match. “I don’t understand the thought process there. And when they look back at the series, some of the selections… I am still trying to fathom the thought process behind them. In Kolkata, one of the spinners (Sundar) bowled just one over. Ideally, you could have gone with another specialist batsman. Similarly, here, Washington batted at three in the last Test and could have easily batted at four here, now that you had a number three. He’s not a number eight; he’s far better than a number eight,” he added.
Gambhir’s ideas are in complete contrast to Shastri and even his immediate successor, Rahul Dravid. Both coaches played an aggressive form of Tests, with five specialist batters, an attacking wicketkeeper, and five specialist bowlers, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s batting ability more of a bonus cushion than a necessity.
Gambhir is the only coach to get whitewashed in a three-Test home series. South Africa reduced India to 122/7 in the second innings in the defense of 489 on Monday.
November 24, 2025, 14:15 IST
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