Gautam Gambhir under pressure after India T20I series loss to England, analysis, reaction, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Border-Gavaskar Trophy vs Australia

Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir has a problem.

The 44-year old’s latest crisis of a turbulent tenure at the top of Indian cricket is the form of the all-conquering T20 squad, with the team’s ongoing tour of England and Ireland proving disastrous.

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The side’s first major assignment since thrashing New Zealand to secure back-to-back T20 World Cup titles on home soil in March has seen an inexperienced crew of India’s generation next lose five of six matches.

For the reigning world champions, who headed into the tour off the back of 16 consecutive T20I series wins, this tidal wave of losses has come as a nasty shock.

A 2-0 series whitewash against Ireland – a side to whom they had never previously lost – is being followed by further calamity against England, with the five-match series lost 3-0 with one match still to play.

It’s not just the results that make for bad reading, either. The second of those losses was by an Indian record 125 runs in Nottingham, after Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue ripped through a new-look batting line-up for just 76.

Loss number three was arguably even uglier, crushed by nine wickets as Harry Brook and Phil Salt put a bowling attack with plenty of miles in the legs to the sword.

Even the weather has conspired against them, with rain ruining the first T20I against England in Chester-le-Street after Iyer led a strong first-innings total of 7/189 that could easily have been the circuit-breaker the team desperately needs.

It leaves India one loss away from surrendering the No.1 ranking, which they have held, remarkably, since February 2022.

Gambhir, who has staked his reputation on a wildly successful run in limited-overs cricket, is now in a precarious situation, albeit more than a year out from the next major short-form assignment, the 2027 ODI World Cup.

And the last thing he needs is for results in the white-ball scene to start to reflect the team’s Test cricket form under his watch.

A FORCED ‘RESET’

Throughout the tour, the common theme has been, in Gambhir’s own words, that Indian cricket is in ‘reset’ mode.

“There are a lot of changes from the XI that played the T20 World Cup final to now,” he said after defeat at Trent Bridge.

“When you go for that reset, it takes a bit of time. A 15-year-old is opening, Prince Yadav is in his second T20I, Harshit Rana is coming back from an injury.

“We ultimately look only at results, and no doubt results are important in international cricket, but we have to be practical as well.”

There’s plenty of truth to this.

Firstly, 15-year old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is playing his first series on the world stage after breaking records galore in the IPL, including an extraordinary 35-ball century in April last year, a month after – officially – celebrating his 14th birthday.

So far struggling to cope with a short-ball onslaught from Archer in particular, world cricket’s next big thing needs plenty of time; indeed, he top-scored, albeit with a five-ball 13, in India’s 76 all out.

Virat Kohli is an ODI and IPL specialist only these days, as is Rohit Sharma. Ravichandran Ashwin is gone completely.

Of the younger crop of senior heads who starred at the 2026 World Cup, injuries have ruled out Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah, leaving newcomers Prasidh Krishna and Prince Yadav vulnerable to the sort of hiding dished out by Brook in Bristol in their most recent game.

Gambhir and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have been ruthless in setting up this new-look team.

Suryakumar Yadav went from captaining the team at the World Cup to being completely axed from the touring squad, with Shreyas Iyer, two and a half years on from his most recent T20I, handed the gauntlet in his place.

The teething issues are obvious, with everything from Iyer’s captaincy woes, to a bowling attack that have been lambs to the slaughter for Brook in particular, to a rejigged batting order struggling to gel, to a steady stream of dropped catches and fumbles in the field.

But the mountain of high-level T20 cricket this crop, all of whom laid the foundations for their international careers in the pressure cooker of the IPL, means claims this side lacks experience can only go so far.

Equally, there’s only so many times Gambhir, who also referred to ‘transition’ in the Test team after a nightmarish 2-0 home series whitewash against South Africa late last year, can fall back on inexperience as an excuse, especially with India the most well-resourced, cashed-up cricketing nation the world has ever seen.

“It’s time to move away from constantly describing this team as being in transition and instead focus on the standards expected,” former Indian great Sunil Gavaskar said following the team’s most recent Test match assignment, a thumping win over lowly Afghanistan in June.

“Every team goes through retirements, changes in personnel, and periods of evolution, but ultimately the emphasis has to remain on performance.”

It’s also hard to deny the lack of experience has been, at least partially, self-inflicted.

At 35, Suryakumar is far enough away from the finish line to still be hoping to represent India at the 2028 Olympics, and performed reasonably at the World Cup earlier this year.

With India’s middle order badly misfiring – most obviously in slumping from 2/60 to 6/100 in a one-run defeat to Ireland – the former captain’s calm head and wide array of shots have thus far proved irreplaceable.

Sanju Samson, Player of the Series at the World Cup and fresh off a dominant IPL season, was surprisingly dumped after just six runs in three innings to start the tour, his spot at the top of the order taken by Sooryavanshi, then left out of the squad for India’s upcoming series against the West Indies.

“Great to see Vaibhav in India colours. But what about Samson! Dropped?? Are you kidding me! ,” prominent Indian commentator Sanjay Manjrekar posted on X.

“Let’s hope it’s injury. Or it’s the most bizarre selection.”

“Three matches after the World Cup, in which he was the player of the tournament, he’s been dropped,” former Indian international Dinesh Karthik said of the axing on Sky Sports.

“Gautam Gambhir has come out and said his form is a concern, they are not happy with that, and hence, communication has been sent to Sanju.

“I hope Sanju accepts and understands the situation.”

‘NOT HOW THINGS WORK’: TACTICAL DISASTERCLASS SLAMMED

While the players have failed to perform, criticism is mounting of Gambhir and Iyer’s tactics throughout the tour.

Chief among the blunders was a bizarre decision to promote tailender Harshit Rana to No.7, ahead of mainstay Shivam Dube, during the team’s collapse in Nottingham.

Rana managed just nine off 13 balls as the innings crumbled from 5/52 even further to 76 all out.

“Sending out Harshit Rana to bat ahead of a more complete batter like Shivam Dube was wrong,” Indian legend and former head coach Anil Kumble said on Indian broadcaster JioHotstar.

“You can’t expect a number eight guy to win you a game by sending him to bat ahead of a proven guy. That’s not how things work in modern-day cricket.”

Kumble also had an issue with a frequently changing bowling attack as Gambhir and Iyer search for a winning combination.

“The Indian team has made too many changes to its lineup, and that needs to stop,” he said.

“The bowlers keep changing – Prasidh Krishna was dropped after one bad game against Ireland; Prince Yadav came in, bowled well, and picked three wickets in the second T20I, but India still lost that game.

“As a new captain, you need to stick with your five bowlers. Batters will score runs, but bowlers win you matches.”

Their conquerors, meanwhile, have showed all the benefits of a settled line-up ripe with experience.

In his second year as captain, Brook’s on-field leadership is flourishing, while the impact of old hands Jos Buttler, Adil Rashid and Sam Curran has allowed fresher faces – the likes of Tongue and Rehan Ahmed – to find their feet.

CAREER-DEFINING AUSSIE SHOWDOWN AHEAD

Since replacing the great Rahul Dravid as head coach in July 2024, Gambhir’s job has been hinged on the team’s unprecedented run of success in limited-overs cricket, and in particular at major tournaments.

Arriving mere weeks after India broke a decade-long drought for a world title at the 2024 T20 World Cup, he has added two more to the trophy cabinet with resounding wins at the 2026 tournament as well as the 2025 Champions Trophy.

Those victories, along with seven consecutive winning bilateral T20I series and an undefeated Asia Cup run in September last year, have been the standards by which he has been measured.

And just as well, because otherwise, the team’s horrifying run in Test cricket under Gambhir would have surely seen his head roll.

Once near-unbeatable in home conditions, Gambhir’s India were infamously dismantled in a 3-0 series whitewash by a Kane Williamson-less New Zealand mere months into his tenure.

Last year, further disaster followed in the form of a 2-0 defeat, including a 408-run thrashing in the second Test, at the hands of South Africa, with unheralded spinner Simon Harmer wreaking havoc on a wayward batting line-up with 17 wickets for the series.

It already means Gambhir has more Test and series losses on home soil than any other Indian coach, after just ten matches.

Around those home humiliations, India have surrendered the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a first series loss to Australia in a decade, while a high-scoring 2-2 series draw against England last year now seems far less impressive given the Poms’ capitulation in the summer’s Ashes and 2-1 loss to the Black Caps last month.

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India’s chance at a third T20 World Cup in a row won’t arrive until 2028. The next ODI World Cup isn’t for another 15 months.

That means the next major spotlight for the team is in its most troublesome arena under his watch – Test cricket.

Talk of a ‘reset’ won’t pass muster should India fail to perform in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy early next year.

Losing to Australia on home shores, who have for generations struggled to deal with the low bounce and spin-heavy pitches of the subcontinent, would be problematic on its own.

Couple it with waning performances on the limited-overs scene, and the scrutiny on the often prickly former opening batter would reach new heights.

The series already loomed, thanks to India’s recent woes at home, as Australia’s best chance since a historic triumph in 2004 to break through for what remains an ageing Test team’s final frontier.

Now, it’s also set to be make or break for Gambhir’s future at the top of Indian cricket.

A series loss of any kind, and the BCCI would be hard pressed to ignore the mounting calls for change, and match the ‘reset’ happening on the field with one off it.