India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak is livid with the criticism that has been directed towards head coach Gautam Gambhir after India’s defeat to South Africa in the opening Test and he feels some of it is by people with vested interests.
Under Gambhir’s leadership, India has lost four Test matches at home in the past year, including the 30-run loss in Kolkata.
“Gautam Gambhir, Gautam Gambhir’ (criticism) is being done. I am saying this because I am a staff and I feel bad. That’s not the way,” Kotak said on Thursday ahead of the second Test starting in Guwahati on Saturday.
He claimed that the criticism is occasionally motivated by agendas.
“Maybe some people individually have agendas. Good luck to them, but it is very bad,” the former Saurashtra left hander said.
Gambhir has come under fire for defending the pitch used for the first Test in Kolkata, where India lost even though they were aiming for a relatively low 124. His batters’ inability to adjust had drawn criticism for the head coach.
The game finished in three days thanks to the rank turner, on which spinners inflicted the most damage. Gambhir then insisted that the surface was precisely what the team management had requested.
This statement stood in stark contrast to what Shubman Gill, the captain, had stated a few weeks prior that his squad wanted to play on more sporting tracks at home.
Kotak was taken aback by the fact that only Gambhir was being questioned.
“No one is saying that this batsman did this, this bowler did that, or we can do something different in batting,” Kotak said referring to the batting collapse that led to the rather embarrassing loss.
Kotak praised Gambhir for being forthright about his desire for such a wicket, and the curator made every effort to fulfill the team’s demands.
“See, in the last match wicket, Gautam said that he took all the blame on himself. He said that he took the blame because he felt that he should not put the blame on the curators,” he said.
Kotak acknowledged that South Africa was superior to both teams on the same track, but he also highlighted the areas where the hosts performed poorly.
“When a batsman is going into batting, if we tell him to play aggressive, if we tell him to run fast, that won’t be right. So, we talk to the players that you make a plan, take your little time,” he explained.
“It’s not like if you go around with the first ball, you will get hit. That is also visible. When a person plays aggressive, that is also visible. But, you take your own time.
“Every player has a certain time. He starts feeling comfortable. I feel on such wickets, you rather play busy cricket than defensive cricket with the correct footwork,” Kotak, who was a good player of spinners in the domestic circuit, said.
Kotak believes that as more Twenty20 matches have been played over the past 15 years, there has been a change in mindset and technique. The main distinction between playing spin in T20Is and Tests is that great hands are needed for T20ls, while strong footwork is required for traditional format.
“Now, we have a lot of players in the world, who adapt all three formats well. But the technique of playing all three formats is different.
“In Test match, you rely a lot on footwork. In T20s, and in power hitting, you focus a lot on creating an early base. So, there will be no footwork in creating an early base.”
