India head coach Gautam Gambhir and Ricky Ponting firing away at each other over the subject of Virat Kohli’s form has provided a spicy preview to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Gambhir had said that the three-time World Cup winning former Australia captain should concentrate on what’s happening in country’s cricket when asked about the latter pointing out that Kohli has scored just two Test centuries in the last five years. Gambhir’s comments weren’t received kindly almost entirely across the board and now, former cricketers and commentators in Australia have started weighing in.
Michael Vaughan, the former England captain who is now a regular commentator on Australian television, has said that Gambhir will have to learn to “play the game” in the media now that he is in a leadership position in the Indian team. “I am going to like Gautam Gambhir as coach because he is spicy. I think he is going to have to learn that sometimes, in the leadership position that he is in, play the game a little bit,” said Vaughan on the Club Prairie Fire podcast in which Australia greats Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist were also present.
“Don’t just buy every comment. Because, by the way, we are all going to be commenting about his team very shortly. And I never thought that the rule of punditry is that you can only have a comment on the team that you played for. If that is the rule of punditry well, Haydos you have spent half your life in India so that’s your job. I have got to get on a plane and go back to Manchester tomorrow morning.
“So I don’t quite agree with Gautam. But I do like a bit of spice and I like the fact that he is going to be very prickly. Over the course of the next few weeks I don’t think it’s going to be easy for his team. I don’t think they are going to win every game, they are going to lose games and it will be very interesting to see how he deals with that negative side of team performance.”
What Gambhir said
Gambhir was asked about Ponting’s comments in the context of the fact that Kohli scored just 93 runs in the three-match Test series at home against New Zealand in which India were quite extraordinarily whitewashed. “Not at all. What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should think about Australian cricket. I don’t have any concerns. They are incredibly tough men; they’ve achieved a lot for Indian cricket and are going to achieve a lot in future as well,” Gambhir said during India’s pre-departure press-conference.
Ponting responded to the jibe as well. “I was asked the other night if I was concerned about Virat Kohli’s form. A day before, I had read his stats from the last five years, so it was clear in my mind. I think he made only two (three) centuries in the last five years. His average in India is now down to 30 from 90, during this period. So yes, I would be concerned.
“And I said if you ask him about his form, he would be concerned because it is nowhere near what it used to be. But then I said since he loves playing in Australia and has a great record here, so if there ever was a tour where he could turn things around, it would be this. But they never talked about the second part. Then Gambhir went and faced the press having just lost against New Zealand. The hair on the back of his neck is already standing up. We got a bit of history as well, but he took a chance to fire back at me,” said Ponting.
