"Sometimes even batters fail.." Gautam Gambhir has his say on lower-order batters not scoring runs in 1st ENG vs IND test

Gautam Gambhir made a bold statement, saying “We lose together, we win together.”

Indian Cricket Team head coach Gautam Gambhir shared his take on the lower order not scoring runs in the first test against the England Cricket Team. He admitted that things like these happen and denied blaming them for the loss, saying they win together, they lose together. 

One of the major reasons behind India’s loss in the first test against England was the poor outing with the bat by the lower order. In both innings, the Shubman Gill-led side had a terrible collapse, especially after the platform was set by the openers and middle order. 

After the centuries from Shubman Gill (147), Rishabh Pant (134) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (101), India were all set for a total over 500 runs in the first innings. But the lower-order batters couldn’t cash in on the platform. From 433/3, they got all out for 471, losing the last seven wickets for just 41 runs. 

In the second innings too, when India were setting a target, it seemed that they would score over 400 runs. But, the centuries by KL Rahul and Pant (118) went in vain as yet again they lost the wickets quickly in the end. This time, they lost the last six wickets for just 31 runs, setting a target of 371 runs. 

Sometimes people fail, and that’s okay – Gautam Gambhir

Gautam Gambhir talked about the poor batting effort from the lower order, saying that it is disappointing and admitted that had they scored 570, 580 in the first innings, they could’ve dominated. Speaking to reporters, he said: 

“First of all, I’ll tell you it’s not that they were not applying themselves,” he said. “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.” 

Gautam Gambhir defended the lower-order batters, saying that sometimes even specialist batters fail and he is hopeful that players will improve. He made a strong statement, saying that he won’t blame the lower-order for the loss as there were other reasons too. 

“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 was 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,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.

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