Gambhir Defends India's Tailenders Despite Costly Batting Collapses in England Test Loss
Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, has come out in support of the Indian lower order batsmen despite their collapse in the recent Test match against England at Headingley. India suffered a 371-run defeat after surrendering control of the game.
India amassed 835 runs, featuring five centuries, including a century in each innings from Rishabh Pant, but ultimately fell short due to two significant batting collapses.
India lost 7 wickets for 41 runs in their first innings and then 6 for 31 in the second. These collapses proved critical. The first prevented India from building a truly imposing lead after winning the toss. The second left them defending a chaseable target of 371, which England achieved comfortably.
Shubman Gill, who marked his captaincy debut with a century in the first innings, mentioned the team had aimed for a target of around 435 runs. Gambhir, however, believes the pivotal moment occurred earlier. "If we could've got to 570, 580 in the first innings, we could've dominated from there," he stated.
Despite the lower order's struggles, Gambhir defended their approach. Shardul Thakur, selected for his all-round abilities, was dismissed playing expansive shots. Prasidh Krishna was out attempting a slog sweep.
"Look, first of all, it's not that they weren't applying themselves. Sometimes people fail. And that's okay," Gambhir explained. "I know it's disappointing. And more importantly, I think they were more disappointed than anyone, because they knew we had the opportunity. It's not like they're not working hard in the nets. These things happen. Even proper batters fail. Hopefully they'll learn, and hopefully we'll get better performances from our tail. And that is not the only reason we lost the Test match."
Another critical factor in India's defeat was their poor catching. They dropped seven catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal being a repeat offender. Ben Duckett, who was dropped by Jaiswal on 97, went on to score a crucial 149. Gill acknowledged the need to improve catching standards.
"Yes, that was something that we spoke about," Gill said. "But when you are out there in the middle, it happens so quickly. And I think it would be one of those things that we have to rectify in the upcoming matches. Chances don't come easy, especially on wickets like these, and we dropped quite a few catches. But I think we have got a young team, still a learning one, and hopefully, in the next matches, we'll be able to improve on those aspects."
However, Gambhir dismissed the 'young team' narrative as an excuse. "Every defeat is bad. It's not about a young team or an experienced team. It's an Indian team. We take pride in winning each and every game for our country. A young team is not an excuse. We represent 140 crore proud Indians. We will try and give our absolute best. There are no excuses. We will turn up every Test match thinking that we can win the test match and win the series."
Gambhir also confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah would only participate in two more Test matches in the series to manage his workload, a decision made before the series began. The specific matches are yet to be determined. "No, we won't change the plans. I think for us to manage his workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings on the table as well. Before he came on the show, it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches.
"But let's see how his body turns out. We haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play. [Even without Bumrah] we absolutely have the bowling attack [to compete]. We believe in them. We trust in them. When we pick the squad, we pick the squad on trust, not on hope. As I just mentioned, those are inexperienced bowlers but they will keep getting better. We saw in this Test match as well that for the first four days, even on day five, we were in a position where we could have won the Test match. We believe and we trust that these boys will deliver for us."
