Team India faced a defeat to England in the first Test in Leeds despite having 5 centuries as well. Several players dropped multiple catches as India faced a 5-wicket defeat as well. However, former India head coach Ravi Shastri sent a direct message to the current head coach, Gautam Gambhir, and his coaching staff.

“This will be a tough pill for India to swallow. You don’t get in positions like this very often, and blow it from there. They had a chance to take England out of the contest and dictate terms. They have to learn and they need more bottle from the tail, for them to be stubborn and put a price tag on their wicket,” Ravi Shastri said on Sky Sports.

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“I think (there is) a big role of the coaching staff. Take the positives out of the contest. As a captain, he (Shubman Gill) has done more than what can be asked of him. He got a hundred; there were five hundreds scored in the game. If anything, you want the basics to be done better. There are things that are out of his control,” he further added.

Team India captain Shubman Gill also faced criticism for some of his tactical calls. While this was his first Test match as the captain of India’s Test team, Shastri doesn’t think the captain could’ve done anything to prevent those catches from being dropped as well.

“Dropping catches is not in his control. That’s where the team as a unit can work harder and get better. Similarly, when you come to bat, you’ve got to put a price tag on your wicket. You can’t come out and blow a situation where you can get about 550-600 by just being timid and meek. These are the areas where you’ve got to be hard at times as a coach, really hard in that dressing room. There are certain things where you tick off a few guys. But, there were a lot of positives in this Test,” Ravi Shastri concluded.