India batting legend Sunil Gavaskar insisted that the Test playing XI selection should depend on skipper Shubman Gill’s choices and should not be interfered by other influences, including head coach Gautam Gambhir. Weighing in on the Shardul Thakur-Kuldeep Yadav selection conundrum, Gavaskar said that it has appeared as though Gill wasn’t completely convinced with the selection of seam-bowling all-rounder in the XI for the Old Trafford Test.
On Day 2 of the match when England halved India’s first-innings advantage by rapid knocks from openers Zak Crawley and Ben Duckett, Gill entrusted Thakur with only five of the 46 overs bowled. Thakur ended up conceding 35 runs at 7 an over. Staggeringly between Days 3 and 4, Gill only used Thakur for six more overs. Of the total 157.1 overs sent down by the Indian bowlers, England racked up a mammoth 669 at 4.25 per over, the highest-ever Test total in Manchester. Thakur ended with figures 11-0-55-0 – sharing the least load of the six bowlers used.
Gavaskar reckoned that Gill perhaps was in favour of the selection of left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep and the final decision on the XI wasn’t entirely his own. “At the end of the day, it is the captain’s team. You can’t say that he didn’t want somebody like, in Shardul Thakur’s case or Kuldeep Yadav’s case, that he didn’t want them, maybe Shubman didn’t want Shardul in the team and wanted Kuldeep. He should have had them. He is the captain. It’s got to be his call really. I know that these things might not come out. Fact is that the captain is responsible. He is the one who is going to be leading. Simple as that,” Gavaskar said on Sony Sports Network.
“It should never be the coach’s team. I am still very much old school. It shouldn’t happen. However young you are, the reason you’re given the job is because someone sees something in you that you are a leader. I’m not talking about Shubman Gill, this is a general point. If you are a leader, you lead. That is your job. You think of Ganguly and the way he transformed Indian cricket. Dhoni, or whatever, they have a presence and an aura,” he added.
“I know for the sake of the showing everything hunky dory these things might not come out. The fact is that captain is the one who is responsible. He is the one, who is going to be leading those.”
Gavaskar recalled his playing days stating how the team did not have coaches and the decision on the combination was factored in solely by the skipper alone.
“We didn’t have coaches. We just had former players as managers or assistant managers of the team. They were the kind of people who you went up to and talked to, they gave you some advice at lunchtime or at the end of the day’s play or on the eve of the game. So, it is difficult for me to get my head around the captain and the coach’s combination. When I was captain, we had nobody who was a former player,” Gavaskar said.
