Talking to the media, after the loss, Gautam Gambhir expressed that he would not criticize any one, regarding the slip-ups on the field. A lot of criticism was directed at Yashasvi Jaiswal, the young opener who had taken a century in the first innings dropped four catches in the field. After India lost the first Test in a five match series with England in Leeds, head coach Gautam Gambhir has stated that he will not blame anyone. On the fifth day, India was defeated as England overthrew 371 in not that difficult of a challenge scripting their second-highest run chase in test history.
Gautam Gambhir’s Statement
“Catches get dropped. The world’s best drop catches. It’s not as if someone drops them on purpose,” Gambhir said.
“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.
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“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.”
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