India suffered a humiliating 3-0 home whitewash at the hands of New Zealand last year.
Team India have done exceptionally well in white-ball cricket under Gautam Gambhir’s coaching, with the ICC Champions Trophy and Asia Cup titles being the standout achievements.
However, Gambhir has not enjoyed similar success in the Test format. While India managed to draw the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy 2-2 in England earlier this year, they conceded the away Border-Gavaskar Trophy 3-1 to Australia and also suffered a humiliating 3-0 home whitewash at the hands of New Zealand.
In an interaction with former India cricketer Aakash Chopra on Star Sports, Gambhir reflected on the dark chapters of his coaching tenure so far, admitting that he could never forget the home series defeat against the Kiwis.
The conversation started with Chopra asking Gambhir about the importance of home dominance in Tests. The India head coach stated that a team must be able to dominate not just at home, but away too, if it genuinely aspires to become World Test Championship winners.
"It doesn't matter if you want to be the best team in the world. I don't think only home dominance is important. I think dominating away from home is equally important. And this young team has shown that sense. England probably was the toughest test for us. A young team, inexperienced team going to England and performing the way they performed.
"More importantly, not the results, the way they fought every day was to me very, very important. So, I'm not a big believer that we need to have home dominance to be qualifying for the World Test Championship final. Because if you're only dominating at home, then you don't deserve to be the World Test Championship winners," Gambhir said.
When asked about the home series loss to New Zealand, Gambhir stated that it is an episode of his coaching stint that he will carry with him for the rest of his life.
"I don't think I can ever forget that in my coaching career. And I should not even forget that. And I've told this to the boys as well.
"It is important to look forward. But sometimes it is also important to remember the past as well. Because if you forget the past, then you can start taking things for granted. You should never look to take anything for granted. Because New Zealand, I felt that everyone thought that we could roll them over. But that's the reality. And that's the sport," Gambhir remarked.
"And for me, I think in that dressing room, I think we need to keep reminding the boys that New Zealand happened. And that's one of the reasons why we don't want to give an inch to the opposition," he concluded.