"Don't want to blame anyone" - When Rahul Dravid opened up on India's shocking 7-wicket loss to England in 2022 Birmingham Test

India went down to England by five wickets at Headingley in Leeds recently in the first Test of the five-match series. Despite being in a dominant position for a majority of the contest, India allowed the hosts to claw back in the contest and eventually lost the Test.

The visitors posted 471 in the first innings and 364 in the second. Five individual centuries were scored across two innings. However, India also suffered embarrassing batting collapses in the Test, losing 7-41 in the first innings and 6-31 in the second. In the end, England chased down 371, with five wickets in hand.

Incredibly, the hosts had chased down 378 against the same opponent in a similar fashion in Birmingham in July 2022. Speaking at the match, then India head coach Rahul Dravid had admitted that they weren't good enough in the end despite been on top for a major portion of the Test match. He commented:

"There were many different phases in the Test match. Yes, we lost those seven wickets in the second innings. But at the start of the Test match, we would have taken defending 360-plus. But it still wasn’t enough. Maybe we could have bowled better. The batting has also probably not been up to scratch. But I don't want to blame anyone. England won the bigger moments."

Before the loss to England, India had failed to defend targets of 200-plus in South Africa as well, losing both the matches by seven wickets. Dravid attributed India's inability to defend totals to various factors and added:

"It's been disappointing for us. I mean, we had a couple of opportunities in South Africa as well and here as well. I just think it's something we need to look at, something we need to probably work on. It could be a variety of factors: it could be maybe we just need to maintain that intensity, maintain that level of fitness, or maintain that level of performance right through a Test match."

Set to chase 378 in the Birmingham Test in 2022, England romped home to victory by seven wickets as Joe Root (142*) and Jonny Bairstow (114*) added an unbroken 269 runs for the fourth wicket.

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How Gautam Gambhir reacted to India's loss to England in the 2025 Leeds Test

Like Dravid in 2022, current India team coach Gautam Gambhir also defended the players after the team went down to England from a dominant position. Speaking at the post-match press conference, he threw his weight behind the bowling attack and said:

"We can’t question our bowlers after every Test. How will we groom them? We need to keep backing our players. We need to build a fast bowling battery."

Speaking of India's bowling, Jasprit Bumrah claimed 5-83 in the first innings, but went wicketless in the second. Prasidh Krishna picked up five wickets in the Test, but had an economy rate of over six in both innings. Also, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur managed only two wickets in the game and Ravindra Jadeja one.