Perhaps the clearest giveaway was Gautam Gambhir saying that they would look at the pitch before taking a call on Rohit Sharma – a rare utterance about a captain, and the signs were evident. Later, Sharma batted much later in the nets, and only for some casual throwdowns. Chances of him sitting the Sydney Test out, and Bumrah taking over, looked imminent.
But it wasn’t all gloomy. Earlier, Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, and Gautam Gambhir had been chuckling away like kids.
They sat in the bucket-seats outside their dressing room, at the end of a chaotic afternoon at the SCG where the head coach Gambhir had said a couple of hours earlier that the pitch will decide their final eleven when a specific question was asked if Rohit is certain to play the Test. Rohit had spotted something funny in the ground in front of him, pointed it out to Bumrah and even as both were laughing their heads off, Gambhir joined them. Rohit said something to him and the three musketeers of Indian cricket couldn’t hold themselves back, doubling in laughter, and backslapping. Once the laughter subsided, they chatted for 5-7 minutes, before Gambhir gestured to them that it was time to go.
Indian captain Rohit Sharma. (Express photo by Sriram Veera)
The team had filed out already and when everyone was inside the bus outside the gate, Rohit walked out to a deafening roar from a small crowd lined up from the gate to the bus. “Rohit! Rohit!” went up the chants, and Rohit beamed a big smile as he sauntered into the bus.
It was a bizarre day to say the least. First the press conference by Gambhir, slated to start at 1:10 pm, started nearly half-an-hour later as word came out that the team was in a meeting. Outside, for a while, Gambhir and Bumrah were engrossed in a chat before Rohit joined them.
We shall come to Gambhir’s press conference later, but before that a few images from training that followed it. The first point of attraction was the slip cordon that took catching-practice to seamers. Rishabh Pant was the gloveman, and standing next to him was Virat Kohli at first slip, KL Rahul at second, Nitish Reddy at third, and Yashasvi Jaiswal at the fourth. For the simulation of slip catchers for spinners, standing close to the catcher, were Shubman Gill and Rahul.
While all this was going on, Gambhir and Bumrah were closeted in a long chat, just outside the Indian dressing room. A short while later, Gambhir went down to the arena, fist-bumped Gill and patted him on the back. Gill immediately found Bumrah approaching him – a shake of hands ensued before Bumrah patted him on the arm. It did seem like the moment Gill was possibly told that he will play.
Meanwhile, in the spot outside the dressing room vacated by Bumrah-Gambhir, were Rohit and Washington Sundar. Another long chat between the two with Rohit sitting and Sundar, standing and nodding away. Not long after Gill, Rohit, and Bumrah too were closeted at the same spot, chatting away.
Later in the batting nets, Dhruv Jurel batted in the first lot at the nets, a scene that hasn’t possibly played out in the series before as he would usually bat much after the main batsmen. Virat Kohli and rest joined him, while Rohit finally emerged from the dressing room, and took his position at the far end of the nets, standing and chatting with the video analyst Hari. Bumrah joined him shortly and both had a laugh.
Kohli meanwhile, finished batting at the outdoor nets, went back in and emerged on the other side of the dressing room that overlooked the playing arena. He sat alone for 10-15 minutes, gazing into the distance. On the big screen, flashed a promo of India Australia Test series.
An airplane flew above, and Rohit yanked his head up to look at the skies. A short while later, he left the nets, but emerged again with pads and took some throwdowns. He didn’t face any bowlers, and at one point a yorker jammed into the bottom of his bat… “Mera bat yaar!” he would say. Unfortunately for him, that played out again, and once again he screamed in agony. It was a very casual throwdown session from him, that took the mind back to what Gambhir said in the press conference an hour or two earlier.
Gambhir had then walked the corridor into the pressroom, taken his seat, and addressed a packed room of reporters from India and Australia. Initially, it seemed as if the combative persona of Gambhir was in attendance.
Very early on, an Australian journalist asked about the traditional pre-game presser being for captains to address, and “is everything alright with Rohit?” Gambhir stiffened up, “Everything is fine with Rohit and I don’t think it’s anything traditional. The head coach is here and that should be fine.”
Slowly he began to relax a bit more, and even smiled, a rare visual from him, though after an appeal to nationalism. Asked how he is handling the tough period of transition in the team, he said, “It’s the role of not only the support staff but you people (the media) as well. How can you probably not only criticise them but try and help them out as well. Transition is not only for us. Transition happens for the entire country and all of us are in it together.”
As ever with Gambhir there were some frank talks. He talked about how the Indian team has “lacked fight” at times in this series. “We’ve got to keep fighting and that’s why we love, every one of us love watching, playing, being part of Test cricket. I know we got to fight it out. And that’s probably one area where we’ve lacked in this series.”
He was specifically asked about the reports of him giving a stern talk to the dressing room, as reported by The Indian Express, and he would admit that honest words were spoken.
‘There have been reports about your talk to the players; can you give us an insight of what your main message was to the group following Melbourne?’ “Those are just reports. That’s not the truth. And I don’t think I need to answer to any reports to be honest,” he stated. But then he would go on to admit he did have honest communication. “And there were some honest words, that’s all I can say. And honesty is very important. Honesty is extremely important if you want to probably go on and achieve some great things.’
In particular, he addressed the need for balance between playing a natural game and the match situation. “It’s a team sport and you’ve got to play what the team needs you to do. That’s as simple as it can get. People can play the natural game, but still, in a team sport, individuals only contribute. It’s the team, if you need to play in a certain way, I think you’ve got to do it.”
And of course the inimitable talking-up that’s also a Gambhir trait. “The belief in the dressing room is that we can win a Test match here. Not only here, but probably go on to do some unbelievable things in the future.” It’s the here and now, though, the cricketing world will be zooming in on his team to see if they show the thing he said they have lacked at times: some fight.
I’m Manas Ranjan Sahoo: Founder of “Webtirety Software”. I’m a Full-time Software Professional and an aspiring entrepreneur, dedicated to growing this platform as large as possible. I love to Write Blogs on Software, Mobile applications, Web Technology, eCommerce, SEO, and about My experience with Life.
