Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir opened up about India’s loss to England in the 1st Test at the post-match press conference on Tuesday. Gambhir, however, backed Team India’s lower-order players’ performances and hopes that they would bounce back.
“First of all, I’ll tell you it’s not that they were not applying themselves,” Gambhir said as India’s 8 to 11 players contributed only 9 runs in both innings combined. “Sometimes people fail, and that’s okay. I know it is disappointing and more importantly, I think they are more disappointed than anyone. Because they knew that we had the opportunity. If we had got up to 570, 580 in the first innings, we could have dominated from there.”
Gautam Gambhir also refused to comment on a single player or point fingers and the under-performance of certain players, saying that they all win together and lose together.
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“It’s not that they’re not working hard in the nets as well. Sometimes these things happen, even the pure batters fail as well. So hopefully they got to learn, and hopefully we can have better performances from our tail, and that is not the only reason why we lost the Test match, to be honest. There were other moments as well where we could have won the Test match. I’m not going to sit here and single out ‘it’s because of the tail’ or ‘the tail couldn’t contribute’ or ‘8, 9, 10, 11 couldn’t contribute’. We lose together, we win together,” he stated.
When he was asked about the performance of veteran all-rounder Shardul Thakur, who only got 2 wickets in the entire match, Gambhir corrected the reporter that he was brought into the team as a bowling all-rounder and not a specialist bowler as well.
“First of all, he wasn’t brought in as a specialist bowler but as a bowling all-rounder. Sometimes, the captain goes with his instincts. Shardul was used a little less, but the reason was probably that [Ravindra] Jadeja bowled really well, so we thought that Jadeja will give us control. Shardul got us two important wickets. So I’m not going to sit here and say that this guy didn’t bowl well or that guy bowled well. Shardul gave us two important wickets, which got us back in the game. I think we just got to be more consistent. That is what is more important, and these boys will learn,” he further added.
He was also asked about Shubman Gill’s captaincy as he lost his first game in charge. Gambhir said that Gill has every skill required to become a successful captain despite the defeat as well.
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“Look, first Test match, obviously, there are nerves,” Gambhir said. “It’s a great honour, as he’s already mentioned. Not many people get that opportunity, and he was phenomenal. More importantly, I think the way he batted in the first innings. I’m sure he would have had his own nerves being the captain for the first time and then getting the hundred.”
“He has everything that it takes for him to be a successful captain, but we got to just give him time. It’s still very early days. He’s only captain for the first time. I’m sure he’s going to get better, and these are tough places to captain. So it’s like pushing someone into the deep sea, and I’m sure he’s going to come out as a proper professional,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.
