Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has backed lower-order batters despite twin batting collapses against England that cost the match in Leeds. On both occasions, India's top-order batters had put the team in the driver's seat. However, rather than driving the game forward, the visitors lower-order batters imploded and handed the hosts a massive advantage. The collapse in the second would have hurt India more as KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant had laid the perfect foundation for the middle or lower order to capitalize.
However, the visitors lost the last six wickets for just 31 runs, and eventually, what seemed like a target of 450 would be set for England came down to just 371, which was easily overhauled by Ben Stokes & Co. with relative ease. The latest loss was India's seventh in their last nine Tests, and perhaps the most difficult to digest, as they had no business of losing it after scoring 835 runs combined in both innings.
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Gambhir refused to accept the loss due to a lack of batting collapses from the lower-order batters. The southpaw also backed Shardul Thakur instead of Nitish Reddy to beef up batting and bowling. However, the former failed to have an impact with the bat in hand, as he was dismissed for below 10 in both instances.
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"Look, first of all, it's not that they weren't applying themselves. Sometimes people fail. And that's okay," Gambhir said. "I know it's disappointing. And more importantly, I think 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. These things happen. Even proper batters fail. Hopefully, they'll learn, and hopefully, we'll get better performances from our tail. And that is not the only reason we lost the Test match."
Shubman Gill defends fielders after horrendous display in Leeds
Besides the batting collapses, India were guilty of dropping a lot of catches, which eventually was the difference between losing and winning. Jaiswal was the major culprit, as he dropped as many as four catches. His fourth missed chance of Ben Duckett on 97 proved costly, as the southpaw ended by scoring 149 runs to take England home. Skipper Shubman Gill defended the fielders whilst admitting the team needs to work on slip-catching.
"Yes, that was something that we spoke about," Gill said. "But when you are out there in the middle, it happens so quickly. And I think it would be one of those things that we have to rectify in the upcoming matches. Chances don't come easy, especially on wickets like these, and we dropped quite a few catches. But I think we have got a young team, still a learning one, and hopefully, in the next matches, we'll be able to improve on those aspects."
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Gambhir further stated the young team under Gill will bounce back as they are representing 140 crore proud Indians.
"Every defeat is bad. It's not about a young team or an experienced team. It's an Indian team. We take pride in winning each and every game for our country. 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."
The second Test will begin on July 02, and it will be played in Edgbaston, a ground where England have a massive advantage.
