Sunil Gavaskar, on July 26 shared his thoughts on the dynamics between captain Shubman Gill and new head coach Gautam Gambhir. He made it clear that the team belongs to Gill, not Gambhir, emphasising that while a coach can give his opinion, the ultimate decision on team selection should be the captain’s call.
On Day 4 of the must-win fourth Test in Manchester against England, part of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the legendary batter said he never faced such a puzzle during his captaincy days, largely because there was no head coach then. Instead, he looked for inputs from managers or assistant managers, who were often former players themselves.
"We didn't have coaches. We just had former players as managers or assistant managers of the team. They were the kind of people who you went up to and talked to, they gave you some advice at lunchtime or at the end of the day's play or on the eve of the game," Gavaskar told Sony Sports.
"So, it is difficult for me to get my head around the captain and the coach's combination. When I was captain, we had nobody who was a former player. To be honest, we have Wing Commander Durrani, Raj Singh Dungarpur. The only time we had Erapalli Prassana, and he was great."
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Gavaskar also added that it should ultimately be the captain who should have the bigger say in selection matters, referring to cases like Kuldeep Yadav, who is yet to be picked for a match on the England tour, and Shardul Thakur, who was dropped after the series opener but returned for the Manchester Test following Nitish Kumar Reddy’s injury.
"The point is that at the end of the day it's a captain's team, like Nasser [Hussain] said. You can't say this, he didn't want somebody, maybe in Shardul Thakur's case or Kuldeep Yadav's case - he should have had them in the team. He's the captain. People are going to talk about him and his captaincy. So, it's got to be his call really," he added.
Gavaskar, however, took a subtle dig, hinting that not all selection calls may reflect the captain’s will, but are instead done to uphold a show of unity.
"I know for the sake of showing everything hunky dory these things might not come out. The fact is that the captain is the one who is responsible. He is the one who is going to be leading those."
With the series score at 1-2, India must avoid defeat in this Test to stay alive in the series.