「ガンビールはロヒット・シャルマとヴィラト・コーリを望んでいる…」 – ディネシュ・カルティク、差し迫ったスターたちの引退について語る

Six months into the job, Gautam Gambhir has realised that being the India cricket team’s head coach is much tougher than he would have ever imagined. In what has been a pretty tough tenure, Gambhir has lost more than he or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) would like.

Since taking over from Rahul Dravid, Gambhir has broken three records. The issue is that these aren’t the records to break. Under him, Team India lost an ODI series to Sri Lanka in 27 years. Australia won the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after a decade. India lost a home Test series after 12 years and, for the first time in history, was whitewashed at home when playing at least three matches.

But former Indian cricketer Dinesh Karthik feels Gambhir shouldn’t be so heavily scrutinised. He understands that taking over from an all-time high of Team India winning an ICC event after 11 years wouldn’t have been easy and that too replacing someone as successful and highly regarded as Rahul Dravid.

“You’ve got to give Gambhir some slack. He has come in at a very tough time post the successful regime of Rahul Dravid. It’s never easy to fill those shoes,” Karthik said on Cricbuzz.

Of course, Gambhir has perhaps to make some of the most difficult decisions a coach can take. Something that Dravid didn’t have to do. Tell players their time is up. Under Gambhir, Ravichandran Ashwin has already retired, and a few more could as well. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja are all over 36.

Their time to retire will arrive sooner rather than later. Rohit even stepped down in Sydney and showed what the team could look like without him. Karthik feels Gambhir doesn’t want to kick any of them out but rather wants them to leave on their own terms. “He [Gambhir] 彼はそれらを望んでいます [Rohit and Kohli] 彼らが最善と考えるものについて決定を下してください。」 カルティク氏は付け加えた。