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India head coach Gautam Gambhir has said the national T20 side is going through a reset and will need time to settle, after another difficult result on the tour of the U.K.
India lost to England by 125 runs in the third T20I on Tuesday, July 7, 2026. It was India’s heaviest T20I defeat by runs, and it left the visitors 0-2 behind in the five-match series. The result followed India’s maiden bilateral series defeat to Ireland last month.
Speaking after the match, Gambhir did not try to soften the performance. He said India had been below the required level and pointed to poor game awareness and a failure to understand conditions as major reasons for the run of losses.
“We just haven’t played well,” Gambhir said at the post-match press conference.
Gambhir points to changes in the T20 side
Gambhir said the current XI is very different from the one that played the T20 World Cup final. He mentioned changes in leadership and at the top of the order, along with the absence of key senior players.
“There are a lot of changes from the XI that played the T20 World Cup final to now. Be it the captain, be it the opening batsman. There is no Hardik Pandya, there is no Jasprit Bumrah,” he said.
The team is now captained by Shreyas Iyer. Suryakumar Yadav, who led India to the T20 World Cup title, is no longer part of the T20 setup after a lengthy lean run with the bat.
Gambhir also pointed to the inexperience within the current group. He referred to 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi opening the batting, Prince Yadav playing only his second T20I, and Harshit Rana returning after injury. His view was that results matter in international cricket, but the context of the rebuild should also be considered.
“When you go for that reset, it takes a bit of time,” Gambhir said. “We ultimately look only at results, and no doubt results are important in international cricket, but we have to be practical as well.”
Adaptation remains the main concern
While Gambhir defended the need for patience, he was clear that India’s cricket had not been good enough. He said the side had not read conditions properly in Ireland or England, and that reading the game was as important as execution.
“Sometimes the opposition plays better than you. Sometimes you don’t assess the conditions well enough and you don’t read them well enough. Reading the game is equally important. We haven’t done that since Ireland,” he said.
India’s latest defeat has extended a poor phase in the format. Gambhir said the side would not become a bad team in just a few matches, but accepted that the lack of adaptation had cost them.
“We haven’t adapted well. Whether it was in Ireland or here in England, that has been the reality. Had we adapted better and played better cricket, we wouldn’t have lost four matches in a row,” he said.
The immediate challenge for India is to stay alive in the five-match series against England. For Gambhir, the issue is not only the scoreline but how quickly a changed squad can learn to handle conditions and match situations better.
Source: The Hindu Cricket.
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