The unravelling of an empire – why Gautam Gambhir’s time is (also) up

For the last four years Baz Ball has been the most talked about thing in Test cricket.

The man after whom it was named was given the boot, and while Baz Ball itself will either endure or follow him out quietly into the night, you can’t help but think that McCullum is the only coach set to receive his marching orders this month.

There is a fine line between a “rebuilding phase” and a full-blown institutional collapse. Following India’s catastrophic bilateral T20I series defeat to England, skipper Shreyas Iyer and the team management have leaned heavily on the word “reset”.

However, the reality on the ground is far bleaker and it would not be a surprise if we saw India’s coach Gautam Gambhir join McCullum in the unemployed queue.

Under head coach Gautam Gambhir, the Indian men’s cricket team is not rebuilding; they are disintegrating. The writing on the wall is no longer written in faint pencil, it is etched in bold, undeniable ink.

For the sake of Indian cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India must act decisively: Gambhir must be sacked before the squad boards the flight to Harare for the upcoming series in Zimbabwe.

This might sound drastic but having scaled the heights of World Champions and number one rankings across formats, India’s decline appears to be accelerating.

The latest leg of this downward spiral unfolded in the ongoing tour of England. The third T20I at Trent Bridge wasn’t just a loss; it was a total humiliation. Bundled out for a miserable 76 runs, India suffered its heaviest ever T20I defeat by a staggering 125-run margin.

Followed by further swift thumpings in Bristol and Southampton, India has now succumbed to a record sixth straight defeat in completed 20-over matches, surrendering their first-ever bilateral T20I series to England.

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To understand how deep the rot goes, one only needs to look at the unprecedented list of failures that have accumulated during Gambhir’s tenure. The graphic of his coaching “records” reads like a horror script for a nation that prides itself on global cricket dominance.

In white-ball cricket, the foundations collapsed early when India lost an ODI series against Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years, culminating in a historic low where India won zero ODIs in an entire calendar year -a drought unseen for 45 years.

Just when fans thought the shortest format would offer a refuge, the team hit rock bottom by conceding a first-ever T20I series loss to Ireland.

The collapse in Test cricket has been equally historic and devastating.

Under Gambhir’s watch, India shattered their home fortress, losing a home Test match to New Zealand at the Chinnaswamy Stadium for the first time in 19 years, which quickly snowballed into India’s first-ever home Test series loss to New Zealand in cricket history.

The multi-decade safety nets have vanished one by one: a home Test series loss after 12 years of dominance, a Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) defeat after a decade of ownership, and an absolute dismantling by South Africa, marking the first home Test series loss to the Proteas in 25 years.

From Adelaide to Nottingham, teams are breaking decades-old hoodoos against India with alarming ease.

Citing a “rebuilding phase” is a lazy shield for tactical incompetence and an inability to motivate a dressing room.

When the reigning world champions arrive in Harare on July 23, they deserve to be led by someone who commands strategic clarity, not someone overseeing historical nadirs week after week.

It is incomprehensible that a side which can boast four of the top eight batsmen in the world should go winless in a tour of Ireland and England.

A coach’s job is to build an effective team. Star players are worth nothing if they cannot be moulded into a star team. Gambhir has repeatedly failed to do this, and he needs to pay the price.

The BCCI’s upcoming performance review must not stall. A caretaker coach or a fresh tactical mind must be installed immediately to arrest this slide before the Zimbabwe tour.

Gambhir’s legacy as a gritty player remains untouched, but his tenure as coach has been an unmitigated disaster. Surely, it’s time for the bleeding to stop.

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