So where do we go from here?

[rollingstoned]

Haven't seen Indian team this hapless at home in all my time and we were quite an ordinary team sometime in the mid 90s but still dominated at home. What do we do to fix it or is this just a phase that a lot of teams go through?

It does seem as though Kohli and Hitman were not the only problems. 

Edited November 24, 2025 by rollingstoned

[Tillu]

Quit watching test matches for your own good. Our next three series will be against SL in SL, NZ in NZ, 5 match series at home against Australia. We will lose all of them.

[Prabhdeep Singh]

It is quite obvious, change of coach change of results.

 

GG tried to fix something that was not broken. 
 

Rohit scored 2 test 100’s and captained well vs England 4-1, then 2024 T20 WC win, change of coach, game over.

[Vancouver]

2 minutes ago, Tillu said:

Quit watching test matches for your own good. Our next three series will be against SL in SL, NZ in NZ, 5 match series at home against Australia. We will lose all of them.

Yes we will lose for sure, but at-least introduce new players on these tours and fire GG.

[putrevus]

30 minutes ago, Prabhdeep Singh said:

It is quite obvious, change of coach change of results.

 

GG tried to fix something that was not broken. 
 

Rohit scored 2 test 100’s and captained well vs England 4-1, then 2024 T20 WC win, change of coach, game over.

Rohit is history , no need to bring him back, he is not Bobby Simpson and there is no packer series going on here.

[rtmohanlal]

a lot has to do with mental toughness .No doubt  about that .That is why this team fails to chase down  paltry scores more often than not.  

When there is pressure the players fail to absorb it .

Another problem is selection process for sure. Proven mediocrities are given chances after chances. Specialists for specific formats are missing soooo badly.

Batsman 'playing in all formats' would suck  in multiple formats at international level unless he is some 'Virat Kohli'. 

[express bowling]

1. Stop picking new test players only after they succeed in the IPL. ( happened with Mukesh Kumar, Harshit Rana, Anshul Kamboj, Sai Sudarshan, Nitish Reddy etc. )

 

2. Pick new test players even if they are not successful IPL players. (  Sarfraz, Gurnoor Brar etc. ) 

 

3. Stop picking test bowlers based on their batting ability ( Nitish Reddy, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar ).

 

I like Washington a lot as a test batsman. But he should bat in the top 6.

 

[The Dark Horse]

Gambhir should be kicked out...Man has been consistently inconsistent in selections, strategy..too whimsical to be a head coach. Couldn't believe I'll say this but Shastri is the need of the hour at least in tests.

[putrevus]

Kick out  guys like Jurel and Sai as batsmen , that should be first step.

 

Sundar and Jadeja only one can play. Axar is decent option at 8 until we find another spinner.

 

It is not rocket science. You need five batsmen and Pant. You need two fast bowlers plus three spinners. If pitch has grass add one fast bowler and remove one spinner.

[rtmohanlal]

Has put 52 runs for the 7th wkt till now , of course when all the pressure is off(when nothing to lose). One of the very serious problems with Indian players. 

[putrevus]

This knock of Sundar people will start extrapolating and turn him into Gary Sobers.

 

It is not his fault that he batted at number 3  but he is not top five batsmen, he number 7 . For him to remain at number 7 he needs to bowl well. 

[adkrish22290]

1. Sack Gambhir. He may continue as white-ball coach where his record is good but definitely not in Tests. Need separate coaching staff and captaincy for red and white ball teams.

2. Stop picking players based on IPL performance and pick proven performers at Ranji level, even if they never get picked for IPL (Pujara never played IPL since 2014 and he was one of India's best number 3 batsmen ever).

3. Stop with this idea of picking multiple "all-rounders" in the side to boost the batting, will work in T20 but definitely not in Tests which is a specialist's game.

4. Stop focusing on producing "all-format players" and focus on building specific teams for Tests and T20s (ODIs can overlap) just like other countries.

5. Enough of the experiments with the batting order and focusing on potential "matchups", it only breeds insecurity and lack of confidence in the player's mind. Nobody bothered about matchups and all back in the 2000s.

Edited November 24, 2025 by adkrish22290

[vvvslaxman]

Watch some balayaas "feel bad" movies lol

 

[BacktoCricaddict]

We need to come to the realization that successful players rarely make successful coaches - unless they also trained independently to be a coach and mentor.

 

Being a successful player requires you to focus on yourself; being a successful coach requires you to focus on others - completely different skill sets. They need to bring in professional coaches and mentors who know how to make the players secure and relaxed. 

 

Who the fark knew Shukri Conrad before SA won the WTC? He played 9 FC matches and averaged 24. Will India ever let someone like that coach an India A team, let alone the senior team? That is the biggest problem we have - judging a coach's aukaat by looking at his accomplishments as a player. 

Edited November 24, 2025 by BacktoCricaddict

[bowl_out]

1. Sack Gambhir. He doesn't have a Test match mindset. At the very least, sack him from Test coaching.

 

2. Pick a coach with at least 5-10 years of domestic coaching experience and has worked with young players. Chandrakant Pandit, Amol Mazumdar, VVS, Zaheer Khan, Venky Prasad, Sridharan Sriram are some names that come to mind.

 

3. Follow the right process for Squad and Team selection. Define the team composition -> possibly 5 batters + 1 keeper + 2 all rounders + 3 bowlers

    Pick your top players for each group (and 1 backup for each group). That makes the squad of 15.

 

4. Define primary roles. Batters are expected to bat long and score runs. Bowlers are expected to pick wickets. Don't pick bowlers on their batting ability.

 

5. Pick 6 Test venues and play Home Tests only there.. at least host SENA teams only there. Do not mess with pitches. Make the pitches more predictable for the Home team.

 

These changes won't guarantee a win, but will surely move the team in the right direction and set it up for success.

[rising]

Get proper batsmen  and bowlers we don't  need so many alrounders they should be able to justify their place as batsmen  or bowler.

Select players who can compliment  each other brings  certain unique qualities. I feel Axar, Jadeeja, Sundar all similar kind of bowlers which is hampering  each other

Define role for each player and not chop and like Sundar from no 3 to 8 with bat

Not picking players from IPL were batting is so easy 200 is loosing score I feel now even when pitch is not good they get tempted  play shots because  it was so easy in flat pitches today  I think almost most of them got out to stupid  shots and even from Kuldeep batting  you can see it was not difficult  pitch to bat maybe bit difficult score. even Kuldeep got of because  he started think of scoring  and opening  bat face

 

[Gollum]

GG has killed test cricket in this country, no coming back from this I am afraid. Leaders like Kohli don't fall from trees to set things right. Beginning of the end of test cricket in India, BCCI also doesn't care, in fact they may welcome this so that they can start 9 months long IPL. By end of this decade, SENA will become uncatchable while we will battle for 5th place with other beggar SC teams. 

 

Most of us were lucky to have witnessed our glorious run from 2015 Lanka tour till 2021 Eng tour. Indian cricket peaked there, will never reach such heights again. 

Edited November 24, 2025 by Gollum

[Lord]

11 hours ago, putrevus said:

Kick out  guys like Jurel and Sai as batsmen , that should be first step.

 

Sundar and Jadeja only one can play. Axar is decent option at 8 until we find another spinner.

 

It is not rocket science. You need five batsmen and Pant. You need two fast bowlers plus three spinners. If pitch has grass add one fast bowler and remove one spinner.

 

You want Axar in place of one of Sundar/Jadeja?

[maniac]

The harsh truth is tests don’t mean anything anymore. Public will forget it.

[putrevus]

1 hour ago, Lord said:

 

You want Axar in place of one of Sundar/Jadeja?

I want a wicket taking spinner there.that was Ashwin’s spot.

Edited November 24, 2025 by putrevus