'Can't talk about future of any player' – Gambhir on Rohit, Virat plans
After a heart-breaking defeat in Sydney that saw them relinquish the Border-Gavaskar trophy, India head coach Gautam Gambhir refused to speculate on the future of veteran batters Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are going through a lean patch in Tests and failed to make any impact in the five-match Border-Gavaskar series. Rohit missed the first match on account of the birth of his second child and added scores of 3, 6, 10, 3, 9 across the three Tests in Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne. He eventually decided to opt out of the Sydney Test, handing over the captaincy to Jasprit Bumrah.
Kohli also struggled, scoring just 5 runs in the first innings in Perth and while he hit a much-awaited century in the second innings, he did not capitalise on the momentum in the rest of the series. Scores of 7, 11, 3, 36, 5, 17, and 6 followed.
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Speaking about his two senior-most players in the post-match press conference, Gambhir insisted that the duo's future plans are entirely their choice and the decision to retire or not lies with the players themsevles.
"See, I can't talk about the future of any player, it's up to them as well," Gambhir said while answering a reporter's question. "But what I can say is that they still have the hunger, they still have the passion, they're tough people. And hopefully they can continue to take Indian cricket forward.
"Ultimately, as we all know, whatever they plan, they will plan for the best interest of Indian people," he added.
Gambhir also spoke about and supported Rohit's decision to stand down from the Sydeny Test, insisting that country comes first.
"A lot has been said, but the bottom line is that while individuals may come and go, the team and the country must always remain the priority. I believe everyone, including myself and other players, should put the team above personal interests.
"Rohit Sharma has exemplified this. We’ve discussed accountability, and it’s something that starts from the top. Rohit demonstrated that in the last match."
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India were dealt with a big blow with the unavailaility of Jasprit Bumrah to bowl in the second innings. Bumrah, who has been the most successful bowler on the tour with 32 wickets across nine innings, had almost single-handedly kept India fighting in the series for most part.
However, Gambhir insisted that while Bumrah not bowling was a major setback but it was not the only reason for India's loss.
"First of all, I don't want to say that because Jasprit Bumrah wasn't there that we couldn't get the result. Obviously we had our moments and it would have been nice if we'd have been there. But we still had five bowlers and a good team has won, which is not dependent on one indvidual.
"Yes, we didn't get the result. (That's) as simple as it can get. We lost the series here, as simple (as that)," he added.
Bumrah had left the match mid-way on Day 2 to deal with a back injury and while he came out to bat for India, he did not take the ball in the second innings. When asked about the extent of Bumrah's injury, Gambhir confessed that so far there is no concrete update on the situation.
"Not at the moment. Honestly, the medical team is working on him, so we will give you the right update at the right time," Gambhir said.
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Despite the loss, Gambhir insisted that there are a lot of positives to come out of the series for India, praising the youngsters and reserving special words for Mohammed Siraj.
"There are a lot of positives. In fact, there are not some positives, there are a lot of positives. There were lot of these boys who were on their first tour to Australia and you know it's a tough to handle. And I don't know how many years there has been a five Test match series. Be it Yashasvi (Jaiswal), Nitish (Reddy), be it Washington Sundar, be it Akash Deep...all those guys. I don't want to mention about individuals but again, I think the attitude of Mohammed Siraj was outstanding.
"I haven't seen a lot of, I don't think so I remember a guy who has ran in every ball in spite of sometimes not being 100% fit and that what it means to him to play for the country and that's the kind of attitude we had. We wanted to keep fighting. We fought till the end.
And obviously, you can talk about the numbers, Jasprit Bumrah had an outstanding series. Jaiswal's got runs. People have got runs in this series. But from the attitude point of view, I think Mohammed Siraj for me was absolutely fantastic."