Another humiliating defeat for India, head coach Gautam Gambhir has made some bold statements and indirectly blamed the schedule of the series for the defeat against the Proteas.
As India suffered a whitewash in the series, Indian fans are blaming Gautam Gambhir for the sudden decline in India’s red-ball campaign. Under Gambhir’s reign, India has yet to win a single Test series against any major Test team.
Since his arrival in 2024, India may have dominated the white-ball format and won tournaments like the ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup 2025, but have struggled in the longest format of the game.
Gautam Gambhir resorts to blame game after another home series humiliation
Gautam Gambhir took over as India’s head coach from Rahul Dravid after the ICC T20 World Cup win. Playing under Gambhir, India has won only two Test series at home, against Bangladesh and West Indies.
All other series were either drawn or India suffered humiliating defeats. The New Zealand home series ended in a whitewash, followed by the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India lost 3–1 after retaining it for years.
Although India were not always impressive in the England tour, some brilliant performances from the players covered up their coach’s technical errors; Otherwise Gambhir also made many mistakes.
“Scheduling makes a difference” – Gambhir blames poor scheduling for Test defeat
Speaking at the press conference, Gautam Gambhir said that the schedule made a difference in the recently concluded Test series against the Proteas, as they did not have a lot of time to prepare for the red-ball game.
Gambhir said, “Look, obviously, scheduling makes a difference. Imagine we were in Australia three days before the start of the first Test. And suddenly you come back from there, and you have two days to plan with the Test team.”
“But again that’s not an excuse. Sometimes, we can probably prioritize it better. We can have more breaks in between so we can maybe start working on some skill sets,” he said.
India’s preparation for the series was not the most ideal. But Gautam Gambhir says this is no excuse #INDvSA pic.twitter.com/EYf7tsapQV
– Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) 26 November 2025
Is Gambhir’s all-round attitude a problem?
The Indian head coach does not have the best strategies when it comes to red-ball cricket; Sometimes his ideas have not been that effective in ODIs also. Although Gautam Gambhir looks unstoppable in T20Is, he has also lost two ODI bilateral matches against Sri Lanka and Australia.
He has made it an ideal to include maximum number of all-rounders in the team, which has affected India’s batting. Just as giving more priority to players is a wrong move, not giving them enough opportunities is also an equally bad move.
Some players have been given a lot of preference, while some have been completely ignored by Gambhir, which does not seem to be a very good strategy.
Also read: Rohit Sharma regains No. 1 spot in ICC ODI batting rankings ahead of South Africa series
