It has been a rocky start to Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as the head coach of the Indian men’s cricket team. After a T20I series whitewash against Sri Lanka, India incurred a defeat in an ODI series in the Island nation in his second assignment. Although India recovered from the blow with a Test series whitewash against Bangladesh at home last month, the hosts succumbed to their first Test series loss on home soil in 12 years after losing the opening two matches in the ongoing contest against New Zealand.
India lost the rain-marred opener by eight wickets in Bengaluru. Although India captain Rohit Sharma shrugged it off as a one-off situation, reminding critics and fans on how the team had recovered against England earlier this year to beat them 4-1 after losing the series opener in Hyderabad, New Zealand once again stunned the home team. Mitchell Santner picked a record 13 wickets as India lost by 113 runs inside three days in Pune.
On Friday, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India will be out to deny New Zealand a clean sweep and themselves a 24-year low. India’s only-ever whitewash (2-0) on home soil had come against South Africa in 2000.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, on the eve of the series finale, Gambhir did not wish to pin the blame on the batters alone, before admitting that the loss hurt. However, he reckoned that if India can produce a result like in Kanpur, where the team showcased their own version of Bazball to wrap up the match in three days against Bangladesh last month, they could also have results like in the New Zealand series.
“Everyone has the responsibility, I cannot say just the batters have let us down,” Gambhir told reporters. “I am not going to sugarcoat that it is hurting. It should hurt and that will make us better. What is wrong in being in this position? I am sure this will push the youngsters to be better cricketers.
“If we have results like Kanpur, might as well have results like this and keep moving forward,” Gambhir added.
The former India opener also admitted that he knew his journey as an India head coach would not have been a walk in the park. “I never expected easy run in international cricket. We lost in SL and now in NZ. but we need to keep preparing and represent our country in the best fashion,” he said.
India still have WTC hopes alive
The consecutive losses hurt India’s chances of making the World Test Championship final for the third time in a row. Although they still remain at the top of the table, their entire fate depends on the results in the Border-Gavaskar Test series next month, where India have to win at least three matches, in addition to the avoiding a whitewash against New Zealand.
“Every Test match has importance. We won’t see a lot of draws in Tests. It comes due to WTC points system and T20 cricket as well,” Gambhir said.
