Gautam Gambhir’s simple plan transformed India’s Test batting in England: Report

India’s triumph in the 2025 Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy series against England has once again put the Indian Test team back on track after their struggles in the previous red-ball outings. India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against Australia after their first-ever home Test series defeat against New Zealand last year.

Much of the blame for these losses went to the batters, who failed to put enough runs on the board. However, the batting department stepped up in England and a bit of the credit has gone to head coach Gautam Gambhir. The former opener is said to have brought a straightforward philosophy to the dressing room, asking batters to spend more time at the crease.

How Gambhir helped Indian batters

According to a report in The Indian Express, Gambhir asked his batters, especially captain Shubman Gill and vice-captain Rishabh Pant, to bat with patience in English conditions. This disciplined approach helped India rack up over 3,800 runs in the five-match series, their best batting performance in an away Test series in recent years. India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak also played a role in the improvement.

“There was a constant shadow of Gambhir and Kotak at the batting nets all through the England tour. On the ground, there were no long chats but subtle signaling. Kotak would appreciate and applaud every good stroke a batsman played while Gautam would be in the background nodding his head. Once in a while the head coach would have a short chat as a padded up batsman moved from the nets to where the kit bags were put,” the report stated.

Gill scored the most runs in the series with 754, while Pant made 479 runs before he had to leave because of an injury. Earlier, under former captain Rohit Sharma, the focus was more on showing intent and scoring quickly, but the report claims that Gambhir changed that plan before the England series.

It worked well as not only Gill and Pant, but other batters also played with a lot more patience. From KL Rahul to Ravindra Jadeja, many players came up with important innings that helped the team during the series. Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was playing his first Test series in England, also performed well at the top.

Playing in challenging English conditions, India bounced back after losing the first Test, thanks to a brilliant double century from Shubman Gill in the second match. The third Test at Lord’s was a close fight and looked like it would end in a draw, but England won by just 22 runs to go 2-1 ahead. India then held on for a draw in the fourth Test in Manchester before winning the fifth Test to level the series 2-2.