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Virat Kohli’s fortress becomes Gautam Gambhir’s minefield: How India turned into home underdogs vs quality attacks
India's home cricket dominance has crumbled under Gautam Gambhir's coaching, with four wins and four losses in eight Tests since July 2024.
Chasing 124 shouldn’t end in humiliation. Yet there was India at Eden Gardens, bowled for 93 against South Africa, with Gautam Gambhir standing by a pitch he called “exactly what we wanted”. The collapse wasn’t just another bad day. It confirmed a dangerous trend: India’s once-impregnable home record has imploded under their new head coach.
Since Gambhir took charge in July 2024, India have played eight Test matches at home and have won precisely four. They’ve also lost four. That equals the total number of home defeats they suffered across an entire decade between March 2013 and October 2024. What was once an aberration has crystallised into a crisis.
A 4-4 home record under Gambhir
The ledger paints two starkly different stories. From the Bangladesh series in September 2024 to the Eden Gardens Test, India’s home record reads as following:
Against Bangladesh and the West Indies, Gambhir’s preference for rank turners delivered clinical results. India swept both series 2-0.
But deploy that same philosophy against New Zealand and South Africa, and the mathematics reverse brutally. New Zealand became the first team ever to whitewash India 3-0 at home, with Ajaz Khan and Mitchell Santner mastering conditions designed to favour the hosts. South Africa then replicated the blueprint at Eden, where India selected four specialist spinners, yet still lost control.
The pattern is unmistakable: rank turners magnify India’s advantage against weaker batting line-ups but compress the gap or flip it entirely when quality attacks arrive prepared.
Also Read: Gautam Gambhir told to ‘go back to classic pitches when Virat Kohli was captain' after Kolkata debacle: ‘Didn’t learn…'
Historical context exposes the crisis
For perspective, consider India’s home dominance before Gambhir. The numbers are staggering:
Between March 2013 and October 2024, India won 42 out of 53 home Tests, losing just four. That’s an 18-series winning streak built on near-invincibility. Gambhir has matched that entire decade’s loss count in barely four months of home cricket.
Since January 2024, India have lost five of 13 home Tests after conceding only three of 26 between 2013 and 2023. Four of those five defeats arrived in their last six home matches. The biggest comparison: India suffered two home Test defeats between 2015 and 2022, then six between 2022 and 2025, with five arriving in 2024-25 alone.
When strategy becomes stubbornness
The Eden defeat highlights everything. India engineered conditions meant to suit them, loaded the team with four specialist spinners, and still got outplayed. When Gautam Gambhir defended the pitch post-match, he essentially argued the execution failed, not the plan.
Yet the evidence suggests otherwise. At Bengaluru, India were dismissed for 46 - their lowest home total ever - before New Zealand spinners seized control across the series. At Eden, the collapse chasing 124 wasn't about excessive turn but batters paralysed between attack and defence.
Bangladesh and the West Indies couldn’t handle that pressure. New Zealand and South Africa didn’t just handle it - they weaponised it. India’s home template isn’t broken, but it no longer functions as intended when elite bowling attacks walk through the door. Until Gambhir recalibrates for top-tier opposition, every “exactly what we wanted” surface will risk sounding like defiance against mounting evidence.
