Gambhir: 'This is exactly what transition is'

After a 12-year period in which India won every Test series they played at home, they have now lost two out of three in the space of just over a year: 3-0 last year to New Zealand, and now 2-0 to South Africa. These results have coincided with the tenure of Gautam Gambhir, who took over as India head coach in July 2024.

Asked whether he still believed he was the right man for the job, particularly in Test cricket, Gambhir said he wasn't the man to take that call.

"It is up to BCCI to decide," he said during his press conference after India lost the second Test against South Africa in Guwahati by 408 runs. "I've said it during my first press conference when I took over as the head coach. Indian cricket is important, I'm not important. And I sit here and say exactly the same thing."

All the focus on the home defeats to New Zealand and South Africa, Gambhir suggested, was taking away from his achievements as head coach, including a 2-2 Test-series draw in England and white-ball victories in the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup this year.

"I'm the same guy who got results in England as well, with a young team," he said. "And I'm sure you guys will forget very soon because a lot of people keep talking about New Zealand. And I'm the same guy under whom [we] won Champions Trophy and Asia Cup as well.

"Yes, this is a team which has less experience. They need to keep learning and they're putting [in] everything possible to turn the tide."

Between the home defeats to New Zealand and South Africa, India have undergone a major transition, with R Ashwin, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma retiring from Test cricket, and with Shubman Gill taking over the captaincy. India's batting, in particular, has been manned by a number of young, inexperienced players.

"Look, first of all, the series against New Zealand, we had a very different side," Gambhir said. "And this is a very different side. The experience that that batting line-up had [compared] to what this team has is chalk and cheese. So comparing everything to New Zealand is probably a wrong narrative.

"I don't give excuses. I've never done that in the past. I will never do it in the future as well. But four or five batters in this top eight have literally played less than 15 Test matches [each], and they will grow. They're learning on the job. They're learning on the field.

"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. That is important. Because I know that I hate using this word transition. This is exactly what transition is."

The defeat in Guwahati was India's heaviest by a runs margin in Test cricket. Gambhir pointed to their collapse on day three, when they slipped from 95 for 1 to 122 for 7 in reply to South Africa's 489, as the passage of play that decided the Test. Fast bowler Marco Jansen took four of the six wickets India lost in that phase.

"From 95 for 1 to 120 for 7 is not acceptable," Gambhir said. "And we keep talking about [India's batting against] spin, but then one seamer got four wickets in that spell. 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 collapse.

"For me, I think that 30-minute spell took us away from the game. Because at one stage on day three, we were pretty much in control of the game where we were 95 for 1. And then, from there, to lose five or six wickets for nothing on the board literally was always pushing us back."

One of the batters dismissed during that collapse was stand-in captain Rishabh Pant, who charged out to Jansen while on 7, and top-edged a slog to the keeper. Gambhir refused to criticise Pant or any other individual player, he seemed to refer to that shot when he answered a different question about how a coach could measure accountability after a defeat like this.

"It comes from care. How much you care about the dressing room and the team," Gambhir said. "Because accountability and the game situation can never be taught. You can talk about skills, you can work on skills, you can keep talking about the mental aspect of the game, but ultimately when you go in, if you keep putting the team ahead of your own self, not thinking, 'this is how I play, and this is how I will get the results, I don't have plan B,' so sometimes you will get these kind of collapses as well.

"So for me I think accountability is important. More than the accountability, it's the care. How much you care about Indian cricket and how much you care about the team and people sitting in the dressing room is important as well."

As for the wider question of how India can lift themselves out of this near-unprecedented trough as a Test team in their own conditions, Gambhir said it would come from putting Test cricket first.

"Start prioritising Test cricket, if we are really, really serious about Test cricket," he said. "That is going to happen overall where everyone needs to be the stakeholder. So if we really care about Test cricket, if we want Test cricket to flourish in India, I think we've got to have a collective effort to make that happen. Because just blaming the players or just blaming the support staff or just blaming certain individuals will not help.

"And as I just said, we can't put things under the carpet. Come the white-ball formats, if you get runs in white-ball formats, suddenly you forget about what you have done in red-ball cricket. That should never happen.

"You don't need the most skillful and the most flamboyant players to succeed in Test cricket. You need the toughest characters with limited skills who will go on to succeed in Test cricket irrespective of how the conditions [are] and what the situation is."

One major area for concern for India is their spinners getting outbowled by their South African counterparts, Simon Harmer in particular. Asked whether India would need to dip into their pool of domestic cricketers to find new spinners, Gambhir said the ones currently in the team needed to be backed and allowed to gain more experience, with the long-serving Ashwin having retired late last year. He pointed specifically to Washington Sundar, who has taken 36 wickets in his first 17 Tests at an average of 32.97.

"Look, that's why we are giving as many opportunities as we can to someone like Washy. But if you expect Washy to deliver straightaway what Ashwin did after playing more than 100 Test matches, it's unfair on that young kid. And that is what you guys need to think as well. That he is what -- 10, 12, 15 Test matches old?

"He is learning his trade. He is learning to bowl in different conditions. He is learning to bowl in different situations as well. And obviously, it's tough when you lose so many experienced players at the same time.

"And that is why it is called transition. That is why these guys need time. Whether it's the batting unit or the bowling unit. I don't think ever in Indian cricket something like this has happened where the transition is happening in the spin-bowling department and in the batting department as well. Normally when your batting is secure or your batting has experience then your team goes through a bowling transition. But with this Test team, obviously the transition is happening in both the skillsets.

"So you guys and all of us need to give them time and I am sure they have got the skill, they have got the talent, they have got the ability. That's why they are sitting in that dressing room and they have delivered.