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New Delhi: India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak believes Gautam Gambhir has become a soft target for India's defeat to South Africa in the first Test in Kolkata.
India prepared a rank turner at Eden Gardens and then slumped to a 30-run defeat inside three days unable to chase down a 124-run target.
It was India's fourth loss in Tests on home soil in the past one year under Gambhir and he has come under criticism for turning their traditional strength into weakness.
Kotak though thinks that the criticism perhaps is agenda-driven, as Gambhir has defended curator of the Eden pitch and questioned batters' inability to adapt.
"Maybe some people individually have agendas. Good luck to them, but it is very bad," Kotak said on Thursday, ahead of the second Test tht begins in Guwahati on Saturday.
"'Gautam Gambhir, Gautam Gambhir' (criticism) is being done. I am saying this because I am a staff and I feel bad. That's not the way."
After their defeat, Gambhir said they instructed for a turning track, which was in contrast to what skipper Shubman Gill said a few weeks ago about his team's preference to play on more sporting surfaces at home.
Kotak was surprised that people were not questioning anyone apart from Gambhir, who put himself up for criticism rather than blaming the batters.
"No one is saying that this batsman did this, this bowler did that, or we can do something different in batting," the former Saurashtra batter said.
"See, in the last match wicket, Gautam said that he took all the blame on himself. He said that he took the blame because he felt that he should not put the blame on the curators."
Kotak pointed out that Indian batters were not upto the mark in approach and technique, admitting that South Africa were a better side on the same track.
"When a batsman is going into batting, if we tell him to play aggressive, if we tell him to run fast, that won't be right. So, we talk to the players that you make a plan, take your little time," he explained.
"It's not like if you go around with the first ball, you will get hit. That is also visible. When a person plays aggressive, that is also visible. But, you take your own time.
"Every player has a certain time. He starts feeling comfortable. I feel on such wickets, you rather play busy cricket than defensive cricket with the correct footwork," the former left handed batter added.
