‘It’s his team, not Gambhir’s’: Sunil Gavaskar questions Shubman Gill’s authority with ‘hunky dory’ dig

Former India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar on Saturday reminded India captain Shubman Gill that the team was his and that the final say on selection calls must rest with him and not coach Gautam Gambhir. With Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma having retired from Test cricket, many believe Gambhir is now the central figure in the Indian dressing room, raising questions about the extent of Gill’s authority as captain.

Gavaskar drew parallels from his own time as captain, saying he never faced such ambiguity as there were no designated head coaches then. When in doubt, he would seek advice from team managers or assistant managers, many of whom were former players themselves.

Speaking on Sony Sports, Gavaskar said, “We didn’t have coaches. We just had former players as managers or assistant managers of the team. They were the kind of people you went up to and talked to—they gave you advice at lunchtime, at the end of the day’s play, or on the eve of a match.”

“So it’s difficult for me to get my head around the captain and coach dynamic. When I was captain, we had nobody who was a former player. To be honest, we had Wing Commander Durrani and Raj Singh Dungarpur. The only time we had someone like Erapalli Prasanna—and he was great,” he added.

Shubman Gill should take selection calls

Gavaskar also stated that the team ultimately belongs to the captain, who is likely to remain at the helm longer than the coach.

“At the end of the day, it’s the captain’s team, like Nasser [Hussain] said. You can’t say 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,” Gavaskar noted.

“I know that, for the sake of showing everything is hunky-dory, these things might not come out. But the fact is that the captain is the one who is responsible. He’s the one leading the team,” he further added.