Everything boils down to temperament: Gambhir on India's batting woes

Gautam Gambhir underscored the importance of players featuring regularly in domestic cricket in order for India to remain a high-performing Test side. Speaking at a press conference in Sydney after India conceded the Border-Gavaskar Trophy to Australia by a 1-3 margin, Gambhir said he would like all his players to feature in the country's domestic circuit if they were committed to red-ball cricket.

"I would always like everyone to play domestic cricket," Gambhir said on Sunday (January 5). "That is how much importance domestic cricket needs to be given. Not only one game."

Gambhir was responding to a question about the forthcoming round of Ranji Trophy fixtures which begins on January 23 in the context of the team's many batting failures over the course of this 10-Test season that began in September. India were shot out for sub-200 totals in six of their nine innings in Australia. They also had three more such innings at home against New Zealand, which included a 46 all-out in Bengaluru.

While some of the batting performances can be attributed to the spicy, result-oriented pitches being dished out in this WTC era, there is a school of thought that India's top cricketers haven't been active enough on the domestic circuit to fine-tune their red-ball skills, partly owing to the highly cramped international schedule. For the record, Virat Kohli last played a Ranji Trophy match in November 2012, Rohit in November 2015 while Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant haven't featured in the Ranji Trophy since their Test debuts in 2018.

"If they are available and they have the commitment to play red-ball cricket, everyone should play domestic cricket. As simple as it can get. If you don't give importance to domestic cricket, you will never get the desired players what you want in Test cricket," Gambhir said.

India's head coach admitted that some of the nagging batting issues had carried on from the home season and were not down to lack of experience in Australia for a transitioning side. "Not a lot of people are playing for the first time in Australia. Probably two of them in the top 8: Nitish [Reddy] and Yashasvi [Jaiswal]," Gambhir said. "All the other guys have had the experience of Australia. So I'm not going to say that it is only because of the young guys. But I think there are a lot of experienced players as well.

"A bit [of the batting issues] could be because of the wickets. But again, it's not only the case in Australia. We've had the same issues at home as well. So I think everything boils down to temperament. Everything boils down to how much you want to sometimes play those tough moments. How much you want to grind in Test cricket. Because Test cricket is all about playing the session. Sometimes see off the spell as well.

"And that is why it's the beauty of sport. So I feel that is one issue where we need to probably look after. How can we convert those 20s, 30s or 40s into big 100s. Not only 100s but big 100s and set the game for our bowlers. Because your bowling department will always be under pressure. If you can't put those first innings runs on the board. So that is something which we need to look into."

Among the chief narratives for India through their many batting slip-ups in the series were the lack of returns for senior pros Rohit and Kohli. The former did not feature in the series-ending Test at SCG owing to poor form while Kohli continued to be vulnerable outside the off-stump and fell eight times in the series to catches behind the stumps. Gambhir didn't dwell on what the future might hold for the senior pair in the format with India set to have a six month gap before their next Test assignment, away in England.

"I can't talk about the future of any player. It is up to them as well," he said. "But yes, what I can say is that they still have the hunger. They still have the passion. They are tough people. Hopefully they can continue to take Indian cricket forward. But ultimately as we all know that whatever they plan, they will plan for the best interest of Indian cricket.

"First of all, every individual knows where his game and his hunger is. That is the most important thing for any sport and any profession. It is not that only for sport, how hungry you are, how passionate you are. It is about whether the team is moving forward with your contribution or not. Because ultimately, it is neither my team, nor your team. It is the team of the country. As I said, there are a lot of honest players in our dressing room. There are a lot of honest people who know how hungry they are. Can the Indian team move forward with their contribution?," he added.

"But as far as my question is concerned, my biggest responsibility is that I have to be fair to everyone in that room. Not only one or two individuals. If I am fair to only two or three individuals, if I am not fair to others, then I am being dishonest to my job. Whether it is a player who has not debuted yet, whether it is a player who has played 100 test matches. My simple aim in my job is that I have to be absolutely fair and equal to everyone."

Reflecting on some of the positives from the tour, Gambhir said India had their moments in the series, including in Sydney, where they grabbed a first-innings lead despite making just 185 in the first innings. "Look, we had our moments in this series where we could have won this series," he said. "It's not that we didn't have moments. The way we started this series, then obviously we drew the [Brisbane] Test match. So somewhere, if you take a look at Melbourne's last session, if we had come here one all, then maybe the pressure could have been more on Australia.

"And there were moments in this match too. If we had followed up on 180, if we had given a lead despite that 180, if we had batted better in the second inning, if we had given a target of 250-300 here, then maybe things would have been difficult. So it's not that we didn't have moments. And it's not that I will only blame one department that the batting didn't go well, bowling didn't go well, we could have done bowling better or batting better. I think overall, if you look at it, if we want to improve and go ahead and do better, then we will have to do better in all the departments.

"There are a lot of positives. In fact, there are not some positives, [there are] lots of positives. There are a lot of these boys who are on their first tour to Australia. And we know it's a tough tour to handle. And I don't know how many years it's been [since a] five Test match series. So be it Yashasvi, Nitish Reddy, be it Washington Sundar, be it Akash Deep, all those guys, I don't want to mention about individuals. But again, I think the attitude of Mohammad Siraj was outstanding. I haven't seen a lot of... I don't think I remember a guy who's run in every ball, despite sometimes not being 100% fit. And that is what it means for him to play for the country. And that's the kind of attitude we had. We wanted to keep fighting and we fought till the end."