As India’s attempt to prepare a spin-friendly surface in Kolkata spectacularly backfired, and the world Test champions South Africa stunned them in the series opener, the ‘sack Gautam Gambhir’ chorus— muted after the England tour —returned with renewed force. The anger, mostly online, isn’t entirely misplaced. Few head coaches survive after losing four home Tests within a year. India’s once-imperious home record has crumbled under Gambhir: four defeats in their last six home Tests, after losing just three between 2013 and 2023. What was once India’s pride and the world’s envy now looks alarmingly fragile.

At times, Gambhir feels like the coaching equivalent of a modern-day West Indies batter—formidable in white-ball cricket, yet strangely out of tune with the nuances of the red-ball g

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