Former Pakistan international Basit Ali has lashed out at the Indian team management even as they partake in the ongoing third Test against Australia. Basit said he believed that head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Rohit Sharma were not on the same page. Meanwhile, Rohit’s captaincy has suffered severe bashing after India’s stiff defeat in the Adelaide pink-ball Test a week back and now a poor performance by the team so far in the third Test in Brisbane. Basit, while analyzing India’s performance in Adelaide and Brisbane Tests, blatantly stated that there is some difference of opinion between the captain and the coach.
“Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir are not on the same page, be it in terms of the one-day tournament in Sri Lanka; Bangladesh, which was a weak series; or the New Zealand series after that. In the second and third Tests, they (Rohit and Gambhir) are not on the same page, like Rahul Dravid was. He and Rohit were not on the same page,” said Basit on his YouTube channel.
Basit also blasted the clearly overcrowded veteran spinner Ravindra Jadeja included in the squad for the ongoing Test and put his logic behind it.
“There is a good explanation to this. In all three Test matches, they had a different spinner in it. In two Test matches, they opted to bat after winning the toss, and here they chose to bowl. There are three left-handers in the Australian batting….So why not Sundar and why not Ashwin? Anyone who understands cricket will definitely talk about it,” he added.
Basit also pointed out that the team has been heavily dependent on Bumrah and does not have many left-arm pace bowlers available under their wings, which may be the above preconditions as to why India finds itself in trouble countering the storm unleashed by Travis Head.
“Did they take the right decision to bowl first? I personally think it was wrong. The Indian team is reliant only on Bumrah. The rest of the bowlers aren’t really performing up to standards. If I say it’s actually Bumrah vs Australia, that would be right; similarly, it is Travis Head vs India…Neither Rohit, nor (bowling coach) Morne Morkel and (chief coach) Gautam Gambhir are able to solve this problem.
“There’s no left-arm fast bowler in their lineup. That’s a weakness. Mir Hamza or Shaheen Shah Afridi were able to deal with Head in terms of angle, as has been seen. That’s why Bumrah bowls round the wicket to Head,” Basit further discussed.
In reply to Australia’s first innings total of 445, India were tottering at 51/4 at stumps on a rain curtailed Day 3.