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Virat Kohli and coach Gambhir's growing rift rekindles controversial Kumble sacking in 2017

Soumyajit Dutta

Virat Kohli with Anil Kumble and Gautam Gambhir [Source: @meri_mrziii, @ctrlmemes/X]Virat Kohli with Anil Kumble and Gautam Gambhir [Source: @meri_mrziii, @ctrlmemes/X]

The Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Gautam Gambhir rift is now in the headlines after the dressing room scenes in the India vs South Africa ODI series.

Virat Kohli was visibly seen avoiding Gautam Gambhir on multiple occasions and even neglected joining the celebration party that saw the Indian coach and KL Rahul cutting a cake. 

What happened between Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli?

Unfortunately, the coaching room rift is not a new equation in the Indian cricket team. Dating back to the Sourav Ganguly-Greg Chappell tussle in 2007, Virat Kohli was earlier involved in a similar situation too when Anil Kumble was the coach, and the cracks were so large between the captain and Kumble that the latter had to step out of his role.

Anil Kumble's sacking as head coach remains one of the most heated and controversial sagas that the Indian cricket team will ever encounter. Kumble had to exit from his role following India's defeat in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 against Pakistan. 

Though behind the scenes, things are not that clear, reports coming out at that time mostly locked in on the rifts between Kohli and Kumble as they were reportedly not on the same page during that period. 

The real reason behind Kumble's axing as head coach

Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli [Source: @cricketcomau/X]Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli [Source: @cricketcomau/X]

However, something which can be taken as some sort of testimonial was the book by former BCCI administrator Ratnakar Shetty, who was present during the 2017 tussle.

In his book, Test, Trial, Triumph: My Years in BCCI, Shetty argued that the duo was not on the same frequency and Virat Kohli had an upper hand with the management, which led to the India great’s sacking from the head coach position. 

Further revealing in his book, Ratnakar shared that Kohli actually felt that Kumble was not standing up for the players in his team, and a tense situation and atmosphere was created in the dressing room by Kumble's presence, a situation which probably now parallels under coach Gautam Gambhir.

Nevertheless, Kumble's achievements as a coach cannot be overlooked completely. The legendary spinner led India to five consecutive Test wins and made India the No. 1 Test side in the world during his tenure, while helping the team also reach the 2017 Champions Trophy Finals during his short tenure from June 2016 to June 2017.

With the Gambhir, Ro-Ko equation up for discussion in a BCCI meeting reportedly scheduled for December 2, the fate of the ex-India southpaw might lie once again in the hands of the ex-India captain.