Gambhir calls for patience as Bumrah's blunting leaves attack exposed

India's plans to play Jasprit Bumrah in just three Tests remain unaltered despite a classic Bumrah-or-bust Test in Leeds.

In fact, Bumrah's load management went to the other extreme on the final afternoon at Headingley, when he wasn't even called upon for the second new ball, when England needed 22 to win with five wickets in hand. However, head coach Gautam Gambhir trusts the rest of the attack to be able to pick up 20 wickets, but also asked for some patience with an inexperienced unit in a team in transition.

"This bowling attack has one bowler with five Tests under his belt [Nitish Kumar Reddy], one has four [Prasidh Krishna], one has played two [Harshit Rana] and one hasn't yet debuted [Arshdeep Singh]," Gambhir said, with Prasidh coming under particular scrutiny for an economy rate in excess of a-run-a-ball in each innings, even though he used the bouncer to good effect in the second innings after struggling to hit his lengths in the first.

"We will have to give them time," Gambhir said. "Earlier, we used to have four fast bowlers in the squad with an experience of more than 40 Tests. 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.

"These are early days. If we start judging our bowlers after every Test, how will we develop a bowling attack? Outside Bumrah and [Mohammad] Siraj, we don't have that much experience, but they [the others] have quality, which is why they are in this dressing room. 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 long time in Test cricket."

Gambhir reinforced his trust in the fast bowlers even as doubts gather as to how India will take 20 wickets in the two Tests that Bumrah won't play. "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. "So before he came on this tour, it was already decided that he's going to play three Test matches, but let's see how his body turns up. But we haven't decided which two other Test matches he's going to play.

"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."

Specifically with Prasidh and Shardul Thakur - the latter played as a bowling allrounder - Gambhir avoided picking holes in their performances.

"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, 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.

"Shardul was used a little less, but the reason was probably that [Ravindra] Jadeja bowled really well, so we thought that Jadeja will 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."

It is not just the drop in the bowling that hurt India in a Test that looked unloseable at various points. Nos. 8 to 11 aggregated just nine runs in two innings put together. What's more, they often got themselves out trying extravagant shots even with a specialist batter at the other end. Gambhir, however, refused to single them out.

"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.

"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."

When you lose a Test in this manner, however, it can be a long way back up, especially when you have a new, young captain. This was Shubman Gill's first Test as captain and only the sixth first-class game he has led in. Gambhir, though, backed Gill to bounce back.

"Look, first Test match, obviously, there are nerves," Gambhir said. "It's a great honour, as he's 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…

"He 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."