India head coach Gautam Gambhir was candid while expressing his disappointment of the team losing a historic Test series to New Zealand on the eve of the third and final Test at the Wankhede Stadium.
“I am not going to sugar coat. It hurts. Whenever you lose it hurts and it should hurt and it will make you better. For youngsters, it is good that they are hurt. Take that hurt, keep improving and keep moving forward,’’ Gambhir said at the pre-match press conference.
The India coach also addressed the perception about him getting angry after defeats by saying it was something of a nice perception.
“It’s a nice perception to have. It’s different when you are the coach. It’s important to have your arms around your players. It’s a lot different than being a player,’’ he added.
Elaborating more on the series loss, Gambhir felt it was unfair to get into a blame game and stated it was a collective responsibility of the team.
“Everyone has the responsibilty, I cannot say just the batters have let us down,’’ Gambhir said.
The coach also said he would not be adding any more players to the squad for the final Test.
“We are not in a situation where we can think of that,’’ he added.
“Harshit Rana is not part of the squad. He has just come here to prepare for the Australia tour, Abhishek (Nayar) made it clear yesterday. IPL retention has nothing to be spoken about, we have a Test match here. Everyone is available for selection, we will take a call tomorrow,’’ Gambhir added.
The coach also looked at the series loss as a motivating factor to do better in the future.
“I am sure this will push the youngsters to be better cricketers. If we have results like Kanpur, might as well have results like this and keep moving forward,’’ said Gambhir.
The former India batter also was of the opinion that a batsman has to adjust his approach and technique based on the situation and circumstances.
“Test cricket should be played like Test cricket. If we have to get 400 runs inside a day’s play we should be able to get it. For me it is about playing the sessions as well. If we play 4.5 sessions we will have a lot of runs on board,’’ he added.
“A complete cricketer is one who can adapt successfully. Not just being able to hit the stands but also rotate strike successfully,’’ he said.
Gambhir revealed that he did not expect an easy run when he took over as the coach.
“I never expected a very easy run for me. I know that we lost in Sri Lanka and against NZ and it is not a good place to be. All we can do is keep working hard and we will try winning every game that we play to represent the country.”
