Rohit Sharma special fails to save India, Gautam Gambhir ends UK tour with 1 win from 10 matches

A dreadful white-ball tour has concluded for Team India. It started with a historic 0-2 defeat to Ireland and has ended with a proper hammering at Lord’s. At no point was India ahead in the game. They were chasing the ball from the moment Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a knee injury.

England hammer India at Lord’s

Jacob Bethell turned out to be the tormentor-in-chief for India. The opener smashed 91 off 93, putting on a mammoth 192-run stand for the first wicket. However, it was his exploits with the ball that turned the game in England’s favour. India were cruising towards the 388-run target. They were 213/1 in 32 overs, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli well-set.

His spell, 49/1 in 7 overs, proved to be the major difference. He sucked the air out of the chase, with Rohit, Kohli, Ishan Kishan and KL Rahul all failing to smash him out of the park. The part-time left-arm orthodox spinner fared better than Adil Rashid and Will Jacks, the two frontline spinners.

He also spoiled Rohit’s party. There was a lot of speculation around him retiring after the India vs England 3rd ODI, but the veteran opener played an all-time classic at Lord’s. He was India’s highest scorer of the day, 138 off 110. Although Kohli and Shubman Gill struck half-centuries as well, Rohit was the driving force in the chase.

The moment he departed, things went sideways for India. And guess what? It was Bethell who dismissed him. Expectedly, he was awarded the ‘player of the match’ for his efforts. Sam Curran too was unplayable. His changes of pace left the batter neither here nor there. In the end, England won the match by 27 runs, but the game was over by the 39th over.

Gautam Gambhir in danger?

The United Kingdom (UK) tour has ended, and now questions will be raised. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir has lost 3 series on the trot. He’s played 10 matches, in two different formats and with two different captains, but the results have been the same. Gambhir finished the tour with 1 win and 8 defeats.

Every time he was questioned over his exploits in Test cricket, Gambhir pointed out his success in white-ball cricket. However, now he’s become the first coach to lose a series to Ireland, was nearly whitewashed by England in T20Is, and lost the ODI series to the 8th-ranked team in England.

He may have won the T20 World Cup 2026 recently, but when he fails, it’s monumental. How can you justify losing 8 of 10 matches? Irrespective of excuses like injury. You may have lost Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Varun Chakaravarthy, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar and Bumrah before or during the tour, but that doesn’t mean you return with 1 win in 10 games.

The Zimbabwe T20I series, which starts on July 23 in Harare, could be the final straw. Although VVS Laxman will lead the team, at what point will the BCCI start asking questions about his performance? If things go sideways against Sri Lanka in a 2-match Test series away from home, that might truly be the end of him.

India’s UK tour: Results

• Lost T20I series to Ireland 0-2
• Lost T20I series to England 0-4 (one washout)
• Lost ODI series to England 1-2

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