Gautam Gambhir, India’s new coach, has clashed with Ricky Ponting; Test Cricket; Perth Test

“Um, I think the boys are intimidated by you, Alf. I think there’s a bit of the walking on eggshells sort of thing. I feel like I think the boys are afraid to say it.”

In one of the most talked-about scenes of The Test documentary series about the Australian men’s cricket team, Usman Khawaja tries carefully to explain to Justin Langer how a tense team environment is not helping performance amid a home series loss to India in the summer of 2018-19.

Gautaum Gambhir with Jasprit Bumrah in Perth. Credit: Getty Images

A couple of years later, amid the biosecurity restrictions of 2020-21, another tightly wound Australian change room succumbed to India again, sowing the seeds for Langer’s messy departure as coach in 2022.

This time around, however, any evidence of “walking on eggshells” is coming from the Indian team dressing room. Gone is Ravi Shastri, the mentor who marshalled those two winning tours, and his studied successor Rahul Dravid.

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