Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar has questioned the role of India’s assistant coaches – Ryan ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar. Gavaskar said Gambhir has scored more runs than these two former players and the current head coach must step up on the Australia tour after an ignominious series loss against New Zealand at home.

While Morne Morkel is the team’s bowling coach, T Dilip is the fielding coach whereas India has two assistant coaches in Ryan ten Doeschate and Abhishek Nayar.

Under Gambhir’s reign, India has already suffered a 2-0 ODI series loss against Sri Lanka and the 3-0 home series loss against the Kiwis has put pressure on the team.

“For batting…what is the role of Abhishek Nayar in the team? Is he a batting coach or an assistant coach? Gambhir has scored a lot more runs than the two, so if he can step in and guide the players on how to bat in Australian conditions and the type of approach they should take, then we can probably perform better,” Sunil Gavaskar said on India Today.

On the other hand, the Little Master reckons the honeymoon period for Gautam Gambhir has ended and he must take more onus for the upcoming Australia tour, where India will play five Test matches.

“The honeymoon period for Gautam Gambhir has ended. We tend to forgive the mistakes made during this period, but we now want him to step in and guide the players properly in the tour of Australia,” Gavaskar said in the same interview.

India was not able to bring their best against New Zealand, especially with the bat, and had to pay the price.

The opening Test match between India and Australia will be played at Perth from November 22 onwards.