"First Of All...": Gautam Gambhir Corrects Reporter, Then Justifies 1st Test Flop's Selection

NDTV

7 hours ago

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir was in no mood to dodge tough questions fired at him at the post-match press conference after the defeat against England in the first Test on Tuesday. Gambhir, living up to the character and reputation he has built, continued to tackle questions from reporters in the presser with great vigour, especially when asked about the under-performance of certain players. When asked about the poor batting show by the team's lower-order players, Gambhir quickly jumped to their defence, backing them to 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 just 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.
Gambhir refused to single out any player or point fingers and the under-performance of certain stars, saying they all win together and lose together.
"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."
On Shardul Thakur's Underperformance
When asked about the performance of Shardul Thakur, who only got 2 wickets in the entire match, Gambhir corrected the reporter that the player was brought into the team as a bowling all-rounder and not a specialist bowler.
"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," Gambhir said.
"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 added.
On Shubman Gill's Captaincy
The India head coach was also asked about Shubman Gill 's captaincy, with the newly-crowned skipper losing his first game in charge. Gambhir said that Gill has every attribute required to become a successful captain despite the early setback.
"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."