India head coach Gautam Gambhir said a question about Rishabh Pant "could have been better" during his post-match press conference following the first England-India Test.
India lost the first Test at Headingley, despite being in strong positions at various points in the match, and setting England a target of 371 – 350 of which had to be chased on the final day. With the news that pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah will play only three of the five Tests, India losing one of them is a blow to their hopes of a first series victory in England since 2007.
There were positives for the visitors, though, as a total of five centuries were scored by a batting lineup bereft of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. Two of these tons came from new vice-captain Rishabh Pant, who became just the second wicketkeeper after Zimbabwe's Andy Flower to score two centuries in a single Test match.
Gambhir: Would have liked if you mentioned the other positives
At the post-match press conference, head coach Gambhir took questions from the media, one of which began: “Coach, talking about the positives... Rishabh Pant, two centuries. How was it to witness that knock from Rishabh Pant and of course being the vice-captain, being among the leaders in this group, how he has taken that responsibility...”
“There are three more centuries as well,” Gambhir interjected. “Those are big positives as well. Thank you. So I would have liked it if you would have said that hundred from Yashasvi [Jaiswal], hundred from Shubman [Gill] on debut as captain, hundred from KL [Rahul] and two centuries from Rishabh.
“So five centuries in a Test match, is a great start to be honest. Hopefully, the question could have been better. But then again, these are great positives – and a five-for from Jasprit Bumrah as well. But ultimately everything boils down to, if you don't get the results... we go out there to get the results.
“Yes, individual performances are good, yes we want those big runs from our top six [or] seven, which we got in this Test match. We got a five-for from Bumrah. But at the end of the day, you go out there to win a Test match. And unfortunately that wasn't the result. So we take it up (on) our chin, and move forward.”
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