The turmoil brewing inside Team India's dressing room is more serious than first imagined. As it turns out, things have been on the slide not just after the defeat at Melbourne but even before the team landed in Australia ahead of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. To make matters worse, the growing tension between captain Rohit Sharma, head coach Gautam Gambhir and players is unknowingly leaving behind a scar that promises to hamper progress in the long run.

Where the previous regime of Rohit and Rahul Dravid stood out was communication. Players not in India's scheme of things were informed about their fate, something the Virat Kohli-Ravi Shastri era or the one before weren't good at. Who can forget how Wriddhiman Saha was informed that he was no longer needed for India and that the team is moving ahead with KS Bharat as the other specialist wicketkeeper after Rishabh Pant? Breaking the bad news is never easy, and not many know how to handle it, but Dravid mastered it. Even if it made him the villain, put him on the line of fire.

But with Rohit and Gambhir, Indian cricket seems to have gone back two years. When Shubman Gill was excluded from the Playing XI in Melbourne, and Ravichandran Ashwin watched Washington Sundar being picked ahead of him in Perth, these incidents marked the initial cracks in India's chain of communication. Sure, the captain and coach went on record to state that they've had a 'conversation', but Ashwin's surprise mid-series retirement and Gill's sullen face told an entirely different story.

Indian player distraught at lack of communication

I encountered a reserve player from the Indian cricket team at a kebab shop at 1:45 AM, the night before one of the Test matches. After he elaborated on the necessity of his late-night meal, he inquired whether Rohit, the captain, had mentioned him at any point during the tour. He then asked, "Has Gauti [Gambhir] bhai said anything about me to you?" The young man appeared quite dejected as he lowered his gaze and remarked, "Nobody communicates with me. Not the captain or the coach. I am unaware of what is transpiring," as reported by a journalist in The Australian.

The three reserve players accompanying the tour are Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, and Khaleel Ahmed. It is noteworthy that Saini participated in the last Test series that India played in Australia, while Mukesh has played in three Tests himself.

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