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- By Gurmeet Batra
- Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:56 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
India vs South Africa Guwahati Test: Former India batter Suresh Raina has thrown his weight behind under-fire head coach Gautam Gambhir, asserting that the onus for the team's recent lacklustre performances in home Tests lies squarely with the players and cannot be attributed solely to the support staff.
India, after being shockingly whitewashed at home by New Zealand last year, is staring at another catastrophic result in the ongoing series against South Africa, having lost the opening game of the two-match series.
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"Gauti bhaiya (Gautam Gambhir) has worked really hard and he is not at all at fault. The players have to work really hard and play well. Under him we have been doing great in the white-ball format where we just won the ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup in Dubai earlier this year," Raina told 'PTI Videos'.
"The players have to score, the coach can only guide, advise and give support to the players," he said.
Raina overlooked suggestions that Gambhir's future as head coach is at stake due to the recent inadequate home Test record.
"If they (the players) are facing any issues, they must be communicating to the coach that this is the issue. If the players do well, then the coach will also be applauded. But if the team is not doing well, it should not be that the coach should be sacked from his post," he said.
"I have played with Gautam bhaiya, he loves Indian cricket team, he loves cricket, I have played and won the World Cup with him. So, he has done really well for the country and it is the players' responsibility to do well," he added.
On the criticism of India's selection buzz in the ongoing series, Raina said performances in domestic cricket should stay the standard.
"They should play domestic cricket regularly and do well there, if they do well that will automatically reflect in their performances at the international level," he said.