Gautam Gambhir hits back Andrew McDonald: Asked about Andrew McDonald’s comments about India ‘intimidating’ Sam Konstans at the end of play on the first day of the Sydney Test, India head coach Gautam Gambhir hit back saying cricket is a “tough game”. is what tough people play” and no one can be that soft.
Constas was given a farewell by the Indian players, captain Jasprit Bumrah was staring at him after taking the wicket of Usman Khawaja on the last ball of the first day’s play. Australia head coach McDonald said after the second day that he had to take care of Constas’ health after the scary episode.
But Gambhir brushed aside McDonald’s concerns after India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 by six wickets. Gautam Gambhir said, “It’s a tough game played by tough guys. You can’t be that soft. It’s as easy as it gets. I don’t think there was anything scary about it.”
Gambhir said in the post-match press conference, “When Usman Khawaja was taking time, he had no right to talk to Jasprit Bumrah. He had no right. He had no right to connect with Jasprit Bumrah, this It was the umpire’s job, I think whatever happened is history.”
Gautam Gambhir was asked about Andrew McDonald’s comments on India ‘intimidating’ Sam Konstas at the end of Day 1:
“It’s a tough sport played by tough men. You can’t be that soft.
“As simple as it can get. I don’t think there was anything intimidating about it.” #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/NiA8WAUP3z
— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) January 5, 2025
Gautam Gambhir further said, “Whatever happened, happened. It is a tough game played by tough people and such things happen. I don’t think we need to make a big issue of it.” He said, “These are not just incidents that happened in this series. This has happened before also. Many Australian players have also done this in the past. We keep making these things a big issue.”
Additionally, Gambhir feels that Constas has the qualities to make a long career of playing Test cricket for Australia. Gambhir said, “That’s why he is playing Test cricket. Obviously in Test cricket, there is improvement every day and sometimes you cannot just go on the field and perform with the first ball. You also have to play red-ball cricket. Must be respected.”
Gambhir said about Constas, “Hopefully he will learn from these experiences. When you are playing against a high-quality attack like India, it will be a big learning for him going forward.”
Asked whether India could have won the Sydney Test had Bumrah been fit, after being sidelined from bowling due to back spasms while chasing Australia’s 162-run target, Gambhir said, “I don’t want to say that. It would have been better if Bumrah was not there, but we still had five bowlers, and a good team is not dependent on one person. We may. Lost the series here.”
When asked about the seriousness of Bumrah’s injury, Gambhir said that there is no concrete update on the situation. Gambhir said, “Not at the moment. Honestly, the medical team is working on it, so we will give you the right update at the right time.”
Despite the series loss, Gambhir insisted that there are a lot of positives for India to take from Australia, especially youngster and fast bowler Mohammed Siraj, who is visiting the country for the first time.
Gambhir said, “There are a lot of positive things. In fact, there are not a few positive things, there are a lot of positive things. A lot of these were boys who were on their first tour of Australia and you know it is difficult to handle “I don’t know how many years the five-Test series has been going on.”
Gambhir said, “I haven’t seen much, I don’t remember any player who runs at every ball despite not being 100 per cent fit at times and what does playing for the country mean to him and that’s our attitude.” We wanted to keep fighting till the end.”
He concluded, “Obviously, you can talk about statistics, Jasprit Bumrah played a great series. Jaiswal scored runs. People have scored runs in this series. But from an attitude point of view, I think my Mohammed Siraj was absolutely brilliant.”
