SPORTS

Gambhir Will Learn, Coaching A Popular Team Isn’t Easy: Shastri

Mumbai: Former India head coach Ravi Shastri voiced his support for the current head coach Gautam Gambhir after India, led by Rohit Sharma, suffered a rare home Test series loss to New Zealand. This defeat marked India’s first home series loss in 12 years. Shastri highlighted that Gambhir is still in the early stages of his coaching career and has time to make adjustments. New Zealand’s spin attack, spearheaded by Mitchell Santner, dominated India, securing the series 2-0 with a game to go by defeating the hosts by 113 runs.

“New Zealand have beaten them (India) handsomely in both the Test matches. It’s food for thought. He (Gambhir) has just taken over the job. It is never easy being coach of a team that has such a big following. It is still early days in his career as a coach. But he’ll soon learn,” Shastri remarked during his commentary stint in the second Test at Pune.

In the match, New Zealand won the toss and chose to bat first. Key contributions came from Devon Conway (76 off 141 balls) and Rachin Ravindra (65 off 105 balls), with Ravichandran Ashwin taking 3/41. Despite their efforts, New Zealand was restricted to 259, thanks largely to Washington Sundar’s 7/59.

India’s response with the bat struggled after Rohit Sharma’s early dismissal, as Shubman Gill (30) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (30) tried to build a partnership, but Santner’s brilliant spell (7/53) reduced India to a modest 156.

In their second innings, New Zealand extended their lead to 358, with Tom Latham’s 86 and valuable contributions from Phillips (48) and Blundell (41). Sundar again impressed with 4/56, but the Indian batters faltered in chasing 359. Despite a strong start from Jaiswal (77 off 65 balls) and Gill (23), they were unable to recover after Santner’s six-wicket haul (6/104) and fell short by 113 runs.

With the series lost, India and Gambhir will look to regroup and end on a high note in the final Test at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

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