Gautam Gambhir has started talking about transition. Well, you’d assume he’s referring to the Test team. But wait, India hasn’t been playing any red-ball cricket. In fact, they have been in the United Kingdom (UK) for the last 3 weeks playing white-ball cricket against Ireland and England. Then, why exactly is India’s head coach harping on a reset?
Transition in India’s T20I team?
Well, that’s because India lost 5 of their last 6 matches, and the only one they didn’t was a washout. It’s a cop-out. Gambhir’s comment came after England beat India by 125 runs in Nottingham. It was the biggest run-margin defeat and the second-lowest T20I score for India in the shortest format.
“When you go for that reset, it takes a bit of time. If you see, a 15-year-old (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi) is opening, Prince Yadav is playing his second T20I, and 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. Sometimes you give players time to develop. England is a high-quality side. If you put players in against such teams, you have to give them time to develop,” Gambhir had said.
Instead of addressing the issues. Of which there have been plenty over the course of the last 6 matches, Gambhir stated that the team was going through a reset. Yes, Shreyas Iyer had returned to the team after 30 months. Prince Yadav, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Suryansh Shedge made their debuts. But the core was the same barring Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah. The former is injured, the latter has been rested.
There isn’t one issue. You don’t lose by 125 runs and by 9 wickets with 6.1 overs left in back-to-back games without any problems. But Gambhir and now even Shreyas keep bringing up transition for no reason. In fact, some of these problems were created by themselves.
“This is a transition phase. We will be making mistakes. It’s about learning quickly and adapting to the overseas conditions. I am sure there are quick learners in the team, and they will bounce back soon,” Shreyas said after losing in Bristol.
Selection & not backing players
These are intertwined problems. Sooryavanshi was thrust into the team because the management cut Sanju Samson loose after just 3 failures. Had he been backed, one wouldn’t have had a 15-year-old opening the batting in must-win matches for India. Mind you, he made his debut during the series.
Similarly, Ravi Bishnoi has played just 1 match. He bowled poorly, but why didn’t he play against Ireland in Varun Chakaravarthy‘s absence? Or in Bristol when the mystery spinner was out with a hamstring? We don’t know on what basis Bishnoi was selected, since Yash Raj Punja played ahead of him for the Rajasthan Royals. But if he’s been picked, why isn’t he playing?
No middle-overs specialist bowlers
Continuing with the Bishnoi issue, India doesn’t have many middle-overs bowlers. Prince, Varun, Prasidh Krishna, and Harshit Rana are the ones. Two of whom didn’t play in Bristol due to injuries. Those who played bowled 2 overs each in the powerplay. That meant Washington Sundar and Axar Patel were who you relied upon.
Now, Axar’s a good option. But Sundar doesn’t even bowl much for the Gujarat Titans or India for that matter. Neither are wicket-takers. Instead, they are run containers. So again, why wasn’t Bishnoi played? Especially since Varun, the only other frontline spinner, was out of the game?
A chat between the head coach and captain as India lose a T20I series against England for the first time 👀
— InsideSport (@InsideSportIND) July 9, 2026
📸: JioHotstar #ENGvsIND #T20I #Bristol #Insidesport #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/VwTg0BqGZ7
Several batting woes
Now, let’s talk about the biggest issue of the UK tour: batting. There are way too many problems here. First, we’ll address the short ball issue. Sooryavanshi, Kishan, Dube, Axar and Abhishek all struggled against the hit-the-deck bowling of Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue.
In Bristol, barring Abhishek, all four were bounced down. Sooryavanshi and Kishan just wish to move their front leg to the right, open up the body, and whack the ball towards the square-leg or mid-wicket region. But on surfaces that have pace and bounce, you can’t just hit through the line.
Axar’s pace-hitting ability has declined, and Dube has never really been great against short balls. All lack the cross-bat shots that Phil Salt and Harry Brook managed to hit with ease. It’s a thing they need to work on extensively. One wonders what Sooryavanshi and Kishan did to be better prepared because they’ve been dismissed in a similar fashion more than once.
Another issue seems to be my way or the highway approach. Barring Shreyas and Dube to some extent, the batters aren’t willing to suffer. On tricky surfaces, you can start slow and make up for it. You don’t always have to swing from ball one. Salt showed that in Nottingham and Bristol. Shreyas did the same twice as well. It seems like most Indian batters just want to bat in the fifth gear and never decelerate, irrespective of the conditions or situations.
