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‘You blame everyone…’: Gautam Gambhir gives his clear take on India’s 2-0 Test series loss to South Africa
As India lost the Guwahati Test to South Africa by 408 runs, head coach Gautam Gambhir did not blame anyone, and shared his views about stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant.
Last Updated on - November 26, 2025 9:14 PM IST
Gautam Gambhir didn’t blame any individual for the debilitating 408-run defeat against South Africa in the second Test but dropped enough hints that he was livid with India’s stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant for “playing to the gallery“. Gambhir’s par-for-the course fiery post-match press conference had one anomaly though — the India head coach was a bundle of contradictions through and through those 15 odd minutes.
India were 95 for one, but things went downhill from thereon with the hosts left stuttering at 122 for seven, largely due to Marco Jansen’s exploits with the red cherry. Rishabh Pant gave charge to Jansen when he needed to show some discretion, and that shot possibly was the worst of all the dismissals.
“You don’t blame one individual shot. You don’t blame one individual playing in a certain way. You blame everyone. So, me talking about an individual, I’ve never done that. I am not going to do it,” Gambhir said in a no-nonsense manner after fronting up at the media conference.
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“The reality is, we still need to improve a lot in red ball cricket. Whether it’s mentally, whether it’s technically, whether it’s absorbing pressure, whether it’s sacrificing, whether it’s putting the team ahead of your individual self. And most importantly, not playing for the gallery. It comes from care. What you care about the dressing room, how much you care about the dressing room and the team. Because accountability and the game situation can never be taught,” his answer was anyone’s guess that he was talking about Pant.
“… Ultimately when you go in, if you keep putting the team ahead of your own self, not thinking that this is how I play, and this is how I will get the results, and this is how I play, I don’t want to play the second, I don’t have plan B. So, sometimes, you will get these kind of collapses as well. 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,” the head coach’s statement could have only been pointed at one man.