Former cricketer Mohammad Kaif admitted that the person under the most pressure during India’s tour of England was the visiting team’s head coach, Gautam Gambhir. While the entire country celebrates the team’s extraordinary performance, which resulted in a 2-2 series draw, Kaif believes Gambhir is the one who has actually been justified.
Kaif stated that if India had failed in England, it could have been Gambhir’s final Test series as head coach, especially following earlier home series defeats against New Zealand and Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. However, with India’s outstanding performance in England, even without veterans like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravichandran Ashwin, much of the criticism has been quiet.
“The most pressure on this tour was on him. As a coach, he was not as successful in Tests. I feel people were waiting that if India lost this Test, the most criticism would be on him. People wait to make his memes on social media and talk bad about him. Maybe this would have been his last in Tests as a coach if India had lost. There was that much pressure on him. But where it is due, we must praise him wholeheartedly,” Kaif said on his YouTube channel.
“We all said that Kuldeep must play in Bumrah’s absence but Gambhir stuck to having batting depth. He wanted batting till number eight and his decision proved right. The two Tests we won, you look at Jadeja and Sundar’s roles there. As there was depth in batting, we could score runs and then the series ended in a draw as we could win. It was a good decision. He was there with a young team. I can understand how much pressure was on him,” he added.
Meanwhile, Gambhir reminded his players of the importance of continuous improvement, hard work, and refining the aspects of their game that will help them dominate red-ball cricket for years to come. India displayed remarkable grit to fight back against England and level the series 2-2 in the inaugural edition of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy.
“The way this series has panned out 2-2 is an outstanding result. Congratulations to everyone. So remember, we will keep getting better, we will keep working hard, we will keep improving our areas, because if we keep doing that, we can dominate Test Cricket for a very long time. People will come and go, but the culture of the dressing room should always be like that, people want to be part of this culture, that is what we want to create,” Gambhir said in the video posted by the BCCI.
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