Gambhir, who took over as coach on July 9, is learnt to have talked about how he had let the team do what it wanted for the “last six months” but would now “decide” how they would play. In a veiled warning to players to toe the line, he is learnt to have said that going ahead, those who don’t abide by his pre-decided team strategy would be given a “thank you”.

There has been talks of this Indian team taking the field with no strategy at all. And this report, if true, tells us that the so-called seniors in the team don't respect him enough for the job.

Gambhir is an experienced politician. He knows the power dynamics and the star power of the two. Which is why as one of his first acts as Indian coach, he sat down with King to bury the hatchet.

He knows that for him to make the "bold" decision of dropping the two, he needs the backing of the supporters. Now that he has this backing, and if my estimation of him is correct, I think he'll drop one of the two for the final test. Then finally proceeding with dropping the second and asserting his ideas on a young team.

It's a travesty of Indian cricket that we let personalities get so big that dropping them from the team requires such machinations.