Win together, lose together: Coach Gambhir won’t blame individuals after Leeds loss-OxBig News Network

Head coach Gautam Gambhir made it clear he wouldn’t point fingers at anyone after India lost the first Test of a five-match series against England in Leeds. India went down on the fifth day after England chased down 371 with relative ease, scripting their second-highest successful run chase in Test history.

For India, it was a case of several missed opportunities. They lost their last seven wickets in the first innings for just 41 runs. A similar collapse followed in the second innings, with the final six wickets falling for 32 runs. In the field, India were equally shoddy, dropping a total of eight catches – six of them in the first innings alone. No team has dropped more catches in a Test match in England in the last 20 years. The missed chances on the field cost India over 200 runs.

| Leeds Test Day 5 Highlights |

India also paid the price for a lack of support from the bowlers around Jasprit Bumrah. While Bumrah picked up a five-wicket haul in the first innings, his efforts lacked adequate support from the rest of the attack.

Speaking to the press following the defeat, Gambhir said he wouldn’t blame individuals for the dropped catches. Yashasvi Jaiswal came under scrutiny, as the young opener – who had scored a century in the first innings – also put down four chances in the field.

“Catches get dropped. The world’s best drop catches. It’s not as if someone drops them on purpose,” Gambhir said.

BATTING COLLAPSES DISAPPOINTING: GAMBHIR

He also acknowledged that the batting collapses in both innings were disappointing. However, the head coach insisted that it wasn’t due to a lack of effort, and promised improvements in the remainder of the series.

“Yes, from a batting point of view, it was disappointing. I think we lost seven wickets for 40-odd runs in the first innings. In the second innings, we lost six wickets for 30-odd runs. We had the opportunity to push for 600 in the first innings. We could have dominated if we had scored that many. But again, these things happen. Hopefully, we will learn from this,” he said.

“It’s not that they weren’t applying themselves. Sometimes, people fail. And they are the ones more disappointed than anyone. They also knew that we missed out on an opportunity, like we just mentioned. We could have got 570-580 in the first innings.

“It’s not like they’re not working hard in the nets either. Sometimes our top-order batters fail as well. These things happen. Hopefully, they can learn and we can get better contributions from our tail. But that’s not the only reason why we lost the Test match,” Gambhir added.

“I’m not going to sit here and single anyone out or say we lost because the tail couldn’t contribute. We lose together, we win together.”

The young Indian side will also take away several positives from the opening Test. Captain Shubman Gill stepped up with a century, while vice-captain Rishabh Pant became the first Indian wicketkeeper-batter to score twin hundreds in a Test match. Openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul also struck centuries in the first and second innings, respectively.

“Every defeat is painful – it doesn’t matter whether it’s a young team or an experienced one. It’s an Indian team. That’s not an excuse for a loss, because we represent 140 crore Indians,” Gambhir said.

India will now have over a week to recover and prepare for the second Test, which begins on 2 July in Birmingham.

– Ends

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