There has been an increasing tendency under head coach Gautam Gambhir to pick players based on their second skill rather than primary.
| Photo Credit: PTI
It is a truism that Test cricket is for specialists. Concentration and patience form an important part of its lexicon not instant gratification and short attention spans.
But the playing XI that India put out for the first Test against South Africa at the Eden Gardens had no more than six specialists. It was effectively five because Shubman Gill suffered neck spasms and his involvement was restricted to just three balls.
Though it will not be entirely correct to blame the lack of specialists for the home side’s crushing 30-run loss, there has been an increasing tendency under head coach Gautam Gambhir to pick players based on their second skill rather than primary.
Muddled thinking
This has often led to muddled thinking, and an absence of a consistent runs for players to feel valued and settled.
Since the start of Gambhir’s tenure, India has seen seven different No. 3 batters, and left-arm unorthodox spinner Kuldeep Yadav went without playing a single Test in England because the team management prioritised batting depth.
Gautam Gambhir with Kuldeep Yadav.
| Photo Credit:
K.R. DEEPAK
Currently, the squad doesn’t have a reserve opener. Should one of K.L. Rahul or Yashasvi Jaiswal pull up last moment, who will the think-tank turn to?
For the second Test beginning November 22 in Guwahati, there is a fair chance that India may line up another all-rounder in Nitish Kumar to cover for Gill’s potential absence.
A straight-forward replacement would be either B. Sai Sudharsan or Devdutt Padikkal, but that would mean five of the top-six batters will be southpaws.
In an era where ‘match-ups’ – like bowling an off-spinner to left-hand batters and not using left-arm spinners – disproportionately influence selections, it is anybody’s guess as to who will play.
Simon Harmer, Player-of-the-Match at Eden for his eight wickets, dismissed six lefties. But shouldn’t India’s batters be better equipped to handle a spinner who – with all due respect – is yet to prove himself world-class and has played just 13 Tests?
What’s worse is that India doesn’t even have a specialist right-hand middle-order batter in the roster, should it want to avoid the above ‘match-up’. Sarfaraz Khan – who has three half-centuries and a 150 in 11 innings for India – is not in the side for reasons unexplained and Karun Nair has been dropped. Both have good track records of playing spin bowling, an area India was found wanting in.
In December 2018, just after retirement, Gambhir, when asked about India’s then on-going experiments with its opening combination in Tests, said: “I believe in security. Give them a proper run and see if they belong to the level. If they don’t, get somebody else and give them the same run. You have to be fair to everyone.”
Time to walk that talk?
Published – November 18, 2025 10:13 pm IST
