BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia has confirmed that the board will meet with the core members of the Indian cricket team once the ongoing tour of England concludes. The decision seems to have been made after the team’s poor run in T20Is post their title-winning run at the World Cup earlier this year.
Since their international season resumed, India have so far played six T20Is and lost five of them, with one being washed out due to rain. These five defeats have led to two consecutive series defeats, including a historic first to Ireland last month.
The BCCI has taken note of Team India’s slide in the shortest format.
“The BCCI is currently observing the performance of the Indian T20 team, which has not been up to the mark in the ongoing series against
England,” BCCI secretary Saikia told news agency PTI on Friday.
Saikia though indicated that the board will refrain from taking any “knee-jerk” reaction, with PTI reporting that Gambhir‘s job as head coach is safe for now.
“However, this is not something abnormal and can happen in international cricket. We consider it as a purely bad phase. Once the ODI series gets over on July 19 and the team comes back, we will have a review meeting with core members of the team to discuss what went wrong in England. Since there is an ODI series, we are hoping that the team will be back in good form,” Saikia said.
Saikia stressed that the review meeting will be “strictly about the performance of the team and how course correction can be done with regards to shortfalls. Nothing else will be discussed.”
Besides Gambhir, chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar will also be part of the review meeting. However, it’s unclear whether India T20I captain Shreyas Iyer will be available since he’s expected to fly to Zimbabwe for a three-match series.
The development comes only a few months after India became the first team to win three ICC Men’s T20 World Cups. It’s expected that Gambhir won’t be asked to quit given the team has won two ICC titles so far in his tenure.
