“That Will Raise Some Questions Internally”: Australia Great Adam Gilchrist On Team India’s Poor Show vs New Zealand

Legendary Australian cricketer Adam Gilchrist feels that India may be under pressure to bounce back immediately during the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy tour of Australia, after being whitewashed 3-0 at home by New Zealand. India suffered a 3-0 home Test series whitewash for the first time in history, and Gilchrist stated that questions may already be rising internally as to how India can react and respond to this situation. He even rose concern regarding how the experienced players in the squad may bounce back.

Gilchrist is certain that the series loss to New Zealand will scar the atmosphere of the Indian dressing room.

“It does (have an impact), more for the Indian players and the Indian team internally. They have to be asking themselves pretty hard questions,” said Gilchrist to FoxSports.

“I do think on the back of that loss and the fact that it was a clean sweep — I cannot remember when that’s happened to them, just losing a series, let alone a clean sweep — I think that will raise some questions internally and the pressure and the expectation and the desire from a passionate cricketing nation to see that change around, that’ll ride heavily on those shoulders of all those players,” Gilchrist further added.

The series was a particularly rough one for India’s most experienced cricketers. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli managed only 91 and 93 runs respectively in the entire series. Ravichandran Ashwin picked up only nine wickets in spin-friendly conditions, and Ravindra Jadeja’s numbers were saved by a fabulous final Test.

“There are a few ageing players there who may start to even second guess themselves a little bit. There’s some high class cricketers in that Indian squad. It’s going to be fascinating to see how they rebound from that challenge,” said Gilchrist.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Test future of the four senior players may be at risk.

“If India doesn’t qualify for WTC final in England, one can be rest assured that all four super seniors won’t be on that flight to UK for the ensuing five-Test series. In any case, all four have likely played their final Test at home together,” a senior BCCI source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.