Gambhir Defends India's Tailenders After Headingley Batting Collapses; Cites Missed Catches as Key Factor in Test Loss

India's campaign at Headingley concluded with a bitter defeat on the fifth day, as England chased down a target of 371 with relative ease. This loss marks India's seventh in their last nine Test matches, a particularly stinging one given their dominant position earlier in the game.

India amassed a total of 835 runs, featuring five centuries, including Rishabh Pant's remarkable feat of scoring a century in each innings. However, two batting collapses proved to be their undoing.

• First Innings: A loss of 7 wickets for 41 runs.
• Second Innings: A loss of 6 wickets for 31 runs.

The first collapse squandered the opportunity to put England under significant pressure after winning the toss. It allowed England to get within six runs of India's 471. The second collapse left India with a target of 371 to defend, which England successfully chased.

India dropped crucial catches throughout the Test match on a surface that didn't offer a lot of help. © Getty

Shubman Gill, who celebrated his captaincy debut with a century in the first innings, mentioned the team had aimed for a target of "around 435". However, head coach Gautam Gambhir believes the crucial moment occurred earlier. According to him, reaching a score of "570, 580 in the first innings" would have enabled India to seize control.

Despite the lower order's struggles, Gambhir defended their efforts. Shardul Thakur, selected for his all-rounding abilities, was dismissed playing aggressive shots. Similarly, Prasidh Krishna fell attempting a slog sweep.

"Look, first of all, it's not that they weren't applying themselves. Sometimes people fail. And that's okay," Gambhir stated. "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."

Another significant factor in India's defeat was their subpar catching performance. They dropped seven catches, with Yashasvi Jaiswal being a repeat offender. Ben Duckett, who was dropped by Jaiswal, capitalised and went on to score 149.

Gill acknowledged the dropped catches as an area for improvement. He said, "Yes, that was something that we spoke about. 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. 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."

However, Gambhir dismissed the "young team" narrative as an excuse. "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."

Gambhir also confirmed that Jasprit Bumrah would play only two more Tests, as part of a pre-arranged workload management plan. The specific Tests are yet to be decided. "No, we won't change the plans. 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...[Even without Bumrah] we absolutely have the bowling attack [to compete]."