Gambhir Defends India's Tail-enders After Headingley Test Collapse, Cites Batting Failures and Dropped Catches as Key Issues

Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, has voiced his support for the Indian lower order batsmen following their recent collapses in the Test match against England at Headingley. Despite the team's overall strong batting performance, Gambhir emphasized that even established batsmen are prone to failure, urging patience and continued development for the team's tail-enders.

India's campaign ended in disappointment on the final day at Headingley. Despite dictating terms for much of the match, they ultimately succumbed to England's successful pursuit of a 371-run target. This defeat marks India's seventh in their last nine Tests.

The match saw India amass a total of 835 runs, with five batsmen scoring centuries, including Rishabh Pant who hit a century in both innings. However, two batting collapses proved detrimental to their chances.

India suffered a loss of 7 wickets for 41 runs in the first innings, and 6 wickets for 31 in the second. The initial collapse prevented India from establishing a significant lead after winning the toss, allowing England to stay within striking distance. The second collapse then set up a chaseable target of 371 for the hosts.

Shubman Gill, who marked his captaincy debut with a century in the first innings, mentioned the team aimed for a target of around 435. Gambhir believed a first innings score of 570-580 would have given them a dominant position.

Indian fielders missed crucial catches. © Getty

Gambhir defended the lower order's efforts, despite Shardul Thakur's dismissals through expansive shots and Prasidh Krishna's attempted slog sweep.

"It's not that they weren't applying themselves. Sometimes people fail, and that's okay," Gambhir stated. "They were more disappointed than anyone, because they knew we had the opportunity. It's not like they're not working hard in the nets. Even proper batters fail. Hopefully they'll learn, and hopefully we'll get better performances from our tail."

Another critical factor in India's defeat was their poor catching performance. They dropped seven catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal being a repeat offender. Ben Duckett, who was dropped on 97, went on to score a pivotal 149. Gill acknowledged the need for improved standards.

"Yes, that was something that we spoke about," Gill said. "But when you are out there in the middle, it happens so quickly... Chances don't come easy, especially on wickets like these, and we dropped quite a few catches... hopefully, in the next matches, we'll be able to improve on those aspects."

Despite this, Gambhir dismissed the "young team" excuse. "Every defeat is bad... A young team is not an excuse. We represent 140 crore proud Indians. We will try and give our absolute best. There are no excuses. We will turn up every Test match thinking that we can win the test match and win the series."

Bumrah's Workload Management

Gambhir also confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah will only participate in two more Test matches during the series, a decision made prior to the series to manage his workload. The specific matches are yet to be determined.

"I think for us to manage his workload is more important because there's a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings on the table as well... it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches."

He expressed confidence in the remaining bowlers: "We believe in them. We trust in them... those are inexperienced bowlers but they will keep getting better... We believe and we trust that these boys will deliver for us."