Gambhir defends young bowling unit after Leeds loss, says India must back future pace stars

India head coach Gautam Gambhir defended his young bowling unit after a narrow defeat to England in the first Test at Leeds, emphasizing team unity and the importance of experience. He praised skipper Shubman Gill and urged patience with emerging pacers.

HYDERABAD: India head coach Gautam Gambhir said that there were moments where India 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,” he said.

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“First of all, I’ll tell you it’s not that they were not applying themselves. 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 said in the post-match briefing after India lost the first Test against England at Leeds in Headingley on Tuesday night.

“We will have to give players like Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana time. Earlier, we used to have four fast bowlers in the squad with an experience of more than 40 Tests,” India head coach Gautam Gambhir said after India lost the first Test to England at Leeds on Tuesday night.

“It doesn’t make such a big impact in one-day or T20 matches, but when you go to Australia, England, or South Africa for Tests, experience matters,” Gambhir said in the post-match briefing.

“But we have got to keep backing them because it’s not about one tour. It’s about building a fast-bowler battery that can serve India for a long time in Test cricket,” he said. “I think for us to manage Bumrah’s workload is more important because there’s a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings to the table as well,” Gambhir said.

“We absolutely have the bowling attack. We believe in them. We trust in them. When we pick the squad, we pick the squad on trust, not on hope. Those are inexperienced bowlers, but they will keep getting better, and we saw in this Test match as well that, for the first four days, we were in a position, and even on day five we were in a position, where we would have won the Test match. So we believe and we trust that we can. These boys will deliver for us,” Gambhir explained about the bowling attack.

“I think Prasidh bowled really well,” Gambhir said. “He got us crucial wickets as well. We picked him because we thought that he’s got something different. He’s got that bounce, and in the first innings, I think he used that bounce really well, [and] even in the second innings. He’ll keep getting better with experience. He’s got all the ingredients of being a very good bowler, the best bowler, which he had shown in Australia in Sydney and here as well. That’s why I said that we’ll keep backing these boys,” Gambhir said.

“Shardul was used a little less, but the reason was probably that [Ravindra] Jadeja bowled really well, so we thought that Jadeja would 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,” the India head coach said.

“It’s a great honour (to lead the country), as Gill has 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,” Gambhir said.

“Gill 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,” he explained.

 

 

 

This full length report is based on audio recording of post-match briefing which the BCCI sends to all accredited media