Gambhir ‘doesn’t give excuses’ but lists factors behind South Africa loss: Transition, inexperience, tight schedule

India head coach Gautam Gambhir’s fiery press conference at the Barsapara Stadium on Wednesday, after the team’s humiliating 0-2 loss to South Africa, was a bundle of contradictions. He repeatedly insisted he wasn’t there to make “excuses” and claimed he never had in the past, yet went on to list several reasons behind the home series whitewash, India’s second in 12 months, both under his tenure.

Gambhir started off the presser by saying that every single individual in the Indian dressing room is responsible for the defeat. “Blame lies with everyone in the dressing room and starts with me, to everyone in the dressing room. I have said it before as well that we win together, we lose together. So I am not going to be someone who is going to say that it lies with X, Y or Z. It lies with everyone sitting in that room, as simple as it can get. That is what team sport is all about,” he said.

However, he quickly shifted focus to the batters, subtly taking aim at their collapse on Day 3 of the second Test. India were 95 for one before things unravelled, with the hosts slipping to 122 for seven, largely due to Marco Jansen’s exploits with the red ball.

“I’m sure you guys must be watching the game. From 95 for 1 to 120 for 7. It’s not acceptable. And we keep talking about the game obviously (against) spin. But then one seamer got four wickets in that phase. And we’ve had these collapses in the past as well. Someone needs to put their hand up and say that I’m going to stop this. At one stage on Day 3, you were pretty much in control of the game. And then from there, to lose 5 or 6 wickets for nothing on the board literally, was always pushing us back,” the former India opener said.

Gambhir, however, refused to compare the defeat to South Africa with last year’s loss to New Zealand, pointing out that the team has several young players who have barely played 15 matches in the format.

“Look, first of all, the series against New Zealand, we had a very different side. And this is a very different side. I’m sure you guys covered a lot of cricket. And I’m sure when you see this batting line-up, to when you see that batting line-up, the experience that that batting line-up and the experience that that team had, to what this team has, is chalk and cheese. Comparing everything to New Zealand is probably a flawed narrative. You’ve got 4 or 5 players, I don’t give excuses, I’ve never done that in the past, and I’ll never do it in the future as well.

But if you see 4 or 5 batters in this top 8, have literally played less than 15 Test matches. And they will grow, they’re learning on the job, they’re learning on the field,” Gambhir said.

Despite Gambhir’s claims, India had defeated England in early 2024 under captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid, with six players making their debut.

Gambhir then said that India are in the middle of a genuine transition, where a largely inexperienced batting line-up needs time and exposure to evolve against top sides. “Test cricket is never easy when you’re playing against a top quality side. So you’ve got to give them time as well. So for me, I think that is something they’ll keep learning. Hopefully they keep learning, that is important. Because I know that I hate using this word transition. This is exactly what transition is. When you’ve got in Test cricket, when you’ve got your batting line-up which has literally played less than 15-20 Test matches, they need time to absorb pressure, they need time to keep getting better against quality attacks and against quality sides,” he said.

Gambhir also shifted focus to the tight scheduling. After the Asia Cup in September, India had roughly three days before the home Test series against the West Indies commenced, followed by the white-ball tour of Australia. And then, within just four days, the Test series against South Africa began.

“Look, obviously scheduling does make a difference. Imagine three days back, three days before the start of the first Test match we were in Australia. And suddenly you come back from there and you have to join a Test team and you have got two days to plan with the Test side. But that again is not an excuse and I am not going to give that excuse as well. Sometimes we can probably prioritise this better, we can have more gaps in the middle so that we can probably start working on certain skill sets. Because working for two days on a certain skill set where we always knew that they had quality spinners, they had two really, really experienced spinners. So that would have always been a challenge for the Test side. So that can happen. But yes, there is no excuse from where we were in this Test match to where we lost the momentum. From 95-1 it wasn’t the skill set, it was something else. It was just probably not the mental application,” Gambhir added.