“You didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball?” - Sunil Gavaskar slams India’s coaching staff over WTC final loss

Batting great Sunil Gavaskar has urged for a proper review of India’s losses in key tournaments in recent times. Speaking about the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final loss to Australia, he sought accountability from the coaching staff.

Despite a change in leadership last year, India’s jinx in ICC events has continued. Under the Rohit Sharma-Rahul Dravid captain-coach combine, they went down to England in the 2022 T20 World Cup semi-final and recently lost to Australia in the WTC 2023 final at The Oval.

While sharing his views on the WTC final defeat to Australia, Gavaskar opined that both skipper Rohit, as well as head coach Dravid, need to be asked tough questions about their decisions and tactics.

He said at The Indian Express Idea Exchange:

“They [selectors and BCCI] should be asking questions, ‘Why did you field first?’ Okay, it was explained at the toss that it was overcast and all. The question after that should be, ‘You didn’t know about Travis Head’s weakness against the short ball?’ Why was the bouncer employed only when he had scored 80 runs."

The former Indian captain added:

"You know, the moment Head came in to bat, in the commentary box, we had Ricky Ponting saying, ‘Bounce him, bounce him.’ Everyone knew about it but we didn’t try.”

Batting first in the WTC final, India had Australia in some trouble at 76/3. However, Head (163 off 174) smashed a counter-attacking hundred, while Steve Smith hit a defiant 121.

Australia posted 469 in the first innings and went on to win the final by 209 runs. India did try bouncers at Head and the batter was clearly uncomfortable, but by the time they employed the tactic, the southpaw was well set.

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“How have you tried to improve the batter?” - Gavaskar questions the contribution of India’s coaching staff

Apart from Dravid, Gavaskar was also critical of the kind of contributions being made by batting coach Vikram Rathour and bowling coach Paras Mhambrey.

Pointing out that the batters seem to be repeating their mistakes, Gavaskar said:

“If the batters are making the same mistakes over and over again, you need to ask what has happened with your technique. How have you tried to improve the batter? Have you tried to tell him, maybe take a different guard. Don’t take a leg-stump guard, take a middle and off stump guard.

Recalling an incident when he advised Virender Sehwag to take an off-stump guard, Gavaskar added that such inputs need to come from the coach.

The Indian legend, who will turn 74 on Monday, July 10, elaborated:

“I remember once calling Virender Sehwag out of the blue. He had not been scoring too many runs. I told him, ‘Viru, just try the off-stump guard’. So he asked, ‘Why, Sunny bhai?’ So I told him, ‘Look, you aren’t known for great footwork. What is happening is, sometimes when you are getting out, you are reaching out for the delivery and it makes things difficult for you."

He continued:

"So, maybe if you take the off-stump guard, you straight away know that the ball is outside the off-stump’. That is where the coach can come in with his inputs.”

Batting coach Rathour represented India in six Tests and seven ODIs, while Mhambrey played two Tests and three ODIs.