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‘So much chopping…’: Former legend slams Indian management continuously ‘Changing’ the lineup every other match
Following India's 2-0 series loss to South Africa, former legendary player Anil Kumble questioned the team for their allrounder filled approach.
Last Updated on - November 26, 2025 3:49 PM IST
Indian team was hosting World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 winners South Africa in a two-match red-ball series, where they faced a brutal 2-0 series defeat. Following the loss, former legendary player Anil Kumble has questioned the team’s muddled approach, lack of stability and the increasing reliance on all-rounders in the wake of the series loss.
The South African team had won the first Test by 30 runs, and then followed up by inflicting a 408-run victory over India in the second Test- which also marks the heaviest defeat by margin of runs for the hosts- in Guwahati on Wednesday.
Anil Kumble was scathing about the constant chopping and changing method of head coach Gautam Gambhir, under whom India have lost a home series 0-3 to New Zealand last year, surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia and now gone down to South Africa at home for the first time in 25 years.
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“Test match cricket requires a different mindset, you can’t really have so many all rounders, so much chopping and changing, so many changes in the batting order, in the team itself. Every second game you have a new player coming in, couple of guys get dropped,” Kumble said on the official broadcast.
The past year has seen the exits of veteran players like Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma from the Test arena- which has left a massive gap in the Indian Test side, which the team management is trying to get young players to take the responsibility.
“I think India needs to sit down and think and ponder. You can’t forget these results, you need to have a discussion around how you see Indian Test cricket go forward. Stalwarts have retired in the last 6-8 months and when that happens you need to have a vision and have a conversation as to what the team has to do,” Kumble said.
“You can’t get players in a side and hope they will develop and grow in the team. It can’t happen, you can have 1 or 2 players like that in the line up if you have 8-9 strong players who have the experience. But you can’t have 1-2 experienced batters and bowlers and the rest of them are trying to find their feet,” he added.