India’s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak offered a curious defense of head coach Gautam Gambhir over the criticism he’s facing for his post-match comments after the first Test against South Africa in Kolkata, which the hosts lost by 30 runs. Not only did Kotak contradict Gambhir’s statement about the controversial rank-turner at the Eden Gardens, he also said that the head coach ‘took all the blame on himself’ to protect the curators.

Gambhir had said that his batters needed to show better application and defensive technique to chase a very gettable target of 124. He added that it was ‘exactly the pitch we were looking for’ and the curator, Sujan Mukherjee, ‘was very, very helpful’, while also asking his team to have the capability of winning despite the conditions.

“See, in the last match w

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