 "India have now lost two out of last three Test series at home under Gautam Gambhir as head coach. AP")
India’s astonishing surrender to South Africa in the second Test in Guwahati has not gone down well with the fans. India lost by 408 runs to South Africa on the final day of the second Test to get white-washed 2-0 in the series. Last year around the same time, New Zealand too had clean swept India 3-0 at home. Fans are demanding accountability of the poor showing of the team at home and social media is abuzz with demands of head coach Gautam Gambhir’s resignation .
Guwahati, which was hosting its first ever Test match, witnessed India’s worst ever Test loss and the fans were not happy at all. After the match ended and the support staff of the Indian team came on the ground, fans could be heard chanting: “Gambhir haay haay”.
Gambhir and other members of the support staff could be seen on the ground as the chants of “haay haay” were being raised. ‘Hay hay’ is an expression used in Hindi to show grief or sorrow towards an incident and for expressing displeasure.
In the post-match press conference, Gambhir had reminded his critics that under him, India also won white ball titles and drew a Test series in England.
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View AllSitanshu Kotak defends Gambhir again
A clip on social media also showed that batting coach Sitanshu Kotak was asking the crowd to not raise such chants.
“Aadmi India ke liye itna kuch bolta hai or aap haay haay bol rahe ho (He speaks so much for India and you are chanting haay haay),” Kotak can be heard saying in the video.
Kotak had earlier defended Gambhir in the lead-up to the second Test when he had said that the targetting of the head coach could be part of an agenda.
India’s meek surrender to Harmer and Co
Indian batters flopped for the fourth time in the series to offer a total surrender to South Africa whose bowling effort was led by off-spinner Simon Harmer . The South African spinner ran through the Indian batting line-up to finish with six wickets and also bagged the Player of the Series award for his 17 scalps on the tour.
Ravindra Jadeja scored a half-century for India in the fourth innings but no one else could score even 20 and thus India were bowled out for 140.
The series triumph became South Africa’s first victory on Indian soil since 2000.