Former cricketers Simon Doull and Nasser Hussain could not stop laughing as they took a brutal dig at India head coach Gautam Gambhir over his viral retort to Australia legend Ricky Ponting at a press conference before the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. Doull said that Gambhir could lose his job if India suffer a 1-4 defeat to a whitewash in Australia.
Earlier this month, Ponting had expressed concerns over Kohli’s batting numbers in the last five years in the wake of another poor show in the home series against New Zealand. However, Gambhir, when made aware of the statement in the pre-departure presser, took a blunt swipe at the Aussie asking him to focus on Australian cricket rather than India.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former England captain Mike Atherton asked Doull about the recent Gambhir-Ponting episode and the latter could not stop laughing as he predicted that the former India opener’s tenure as head coach could turn out to be shorter than Greg Chappell’s. The former Australia player served as the head coach of the Indian team between May 2005 and early 2007, a period marred by controversy, public scrutiny, rift with then captain Sourav Ganguly and a forgettable show in the 2007 ODI World Cup.
Urging Gambhir to embrace the media, Doull felt he could lose his job if India fail bitterly in the Border-Gavaskar series.
“It could be a shorter tenure than Greg Chappell’s tenure in charge of India. We have all either play alongside him or sat with him, we know he can be that gruff type of character. Is it what India need at this moment? Well, they certainly feel they do. He has the history and the backing to be able to sit down with those players and talk to them about how to play the game and how Test cricket works. But it’s a tough ask, and its a huge series coming up. He’s never going to be friendly with the media, but if he embraced it a little more, he could end up having a bit of a cult following. But not sure he’s going down that road. And if he doesn’t get the results in Australia, or its a 4-1 or 5-0, I don’t know if his job continues,” he said.
‘An odd dig at Ricky’
Nasser, who was part of the panel, too could not stop laughing, as he labelled Gambhir’s remark as a “odd dig,” thus sympathising with Ponting.
“It’s a complete flip because they went from Dravid, who was more affable on the outside, but tough as nails inwardly, while Gambhir is angry on the outside and quite calm in the dressing room. But it was an odd dig at Ricky, who was only asked to comment on Virat, and now has been told to speak only on Australian players. That will be a tough ask as a pundit in an India-Australia series,” he said.