'Lot of young boys stood up' - Head coach Gautam Gambhir heaps praise on youngsters for magnificent performance in BGT 2024

Team India lost the much-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024 by 3-1. After a decade, the trophy went back to Australia, owing to India's upsetting performance. It was only because of Jasprit Bumrah that India had hopes of winning the last game and ending the series in a draw. However, he was injured and couldn't bowl in the last innings, leading to a defeat. 

When head coach Gautam Gambhir came up for the press conference, he wasn't happy with the way the team was dependent on just one player. He spoke about how he was proud of the young lads who stood up for the team whenever it was needed the most. 

"Team cannot be dependent on one player. I won't say that we lost because Bumrah wasn't there. Lot of young boys stood up. Jaiswal, Reddy, Akash, Siraj, Sundar - all kept fighting," said Gautam Gambhir at the post match press conference.

Virat Kohli's form is a serious concern for India now. Except for the century in the first game, Kohli didn't play a single good knock in the series. This is the worst series for him as a player in his career. Moreover, Rishabh Pant wasn't effective as well. 

India lose spot in WTC 2025 finals after BGT 2024

South Africa will now face Australia in the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2025 at Lord's in June. The Aussies played wonderfully well against India and went on to win the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024, 3-1. With that, India's WTC finals hopes were crashed.

This is the first time Team India won't play in the WTC finals. After winning the first game by 295 runs, it felt like India are surely qualifying for the finals. However, the failure of the batting order consistently led to this upsetting defeat. Even the bowlers weren't very effective. Except for Bumrah, none of the other bowlers played well throughout the series. He claimed 32 wickets in nine innings and was the highest wicket-taker in the series.