"We are only losing" - Aakash Chopra says pressure is mounting on Gautam Gambhir after India's loss in ENG vs IND 2025 1st Test

Former India player Aakash Chopra has opined that the pressure is mounting on Gautam Gambhir after the Indian team's defeat in the first Test against England. He pointed out that the Indian Test side has lost the majority of the games in Gambhir's tenure as head coach thus far.

India suffered a five-wicket loss to England in the first Test of the five-match series in Leeds on Tuesday, June 24. They lost 1-3 to Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 and 0-3 to New Zealand at home in their previous two Test series.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel 'Aakash Chopra,' the cricketer-turned-commentator was asked whether India's coaching staff, especially Gambhir, should be questioned, considering Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were blamed after the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 loss, and Shubman Gill's captaincy is being blamed now.

"Everyone will be questioned. It's Indian cricket's principle. If things go well, everyone is given credit, but when things go wrong, criticism is absolutely obvious. I will still be more patient with Gill because he has become the captain just now. So he will take time to understand things," Chopra responded. "However, the pressure is mounting on Gautam Gambhir. If you look at his returns in red-ball cricket, you will find that he has won very few matches. They won two matches against Bangladesh, one against Australia, lost three against New Zealand, then lost three against Australia, and then lost one against England. So we are only losing, we aren't winning," he added.

While acknowledging that the Indian team has performed very well under Gautam Gambhir in white-ball cricket, Aakash Chopra added that the performances in Test cricket have been questionable. He opined that a lot is at stake in the ongoing series against England, highlighting that results need to be delivered as the selectors have seemingly picked all the players the team management asked for.

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"I don't think that's the case" - Aakash Chopra on players being selected for ENG vs IND 2025 Tests based on IPL performances

Karun Nair failed to play a substantial knock in the first Test against England. [P/C: Getty]

In the same video, Aakash Chopra was asked why players are being selected for Tests based on IPL performances instead of how they fare in the Ranji Trophy.

"I don't think that's the case. The selection is happening based on Ranji only. Karun Nair - Ranji, Abhimanyu Easwaran - Ranji. Maybe in the case of bowlers, you sometimes feel that you should go with someone who is looking in good form. However, Shardul Thakur - Ranji," he responded.

While opining that players aren't being picked for Tests based on IPL performances, the former India opener added that performances in the prestigious league should be considered for white-ball selections.

"Eventually, you are going with people who have done well in Ranji. So it's not that you are picking a team for Test matches based on IPL. I would say it's absolutely right to do that for white-ball cricket, but I feel we are not doing that in Test cricket. We are not giving that much weightage to IPL form for Test cricket, which is a fair thing to do," Chopra observed.

Sai Sudharsan was potentially one of the players selected for the England tour due to his outstanding performances in IPL 2025. The Tamil Nadu batter, who managed zero and 30 in his two innings in the Leeds Test, has aggregated 1,987 runs at a slightly underwhelming average of 38.96 in 30 first-class games.

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Edited by Kartik Iyer