In the aftermath of India's measly 76 all-out in Trent Bridge that handed them their fourth straight T20I loss, Gautam Gambhir talked up, repeatedly, the need to read the game better. The India head coach also pointed out the reset that the team has undergone since becoming world champions exactly four months ago.

"I think we just haven't played well," Gambhir said after England took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the T20I series on Tuesday (July 7). "You don't become a bad team after four games. Sometimes, if the opposition plays better than you... sometimes you don't assess the conditions better, you don't read the conditions better. Reading the game is equally important as well. We haven't done that since Ireland."

One of the alarming aspects of India's meek batting surrender was how they struggled against pace and bounce. There's evidence to suggest this isn't a one-off, but Gambhir chose to look at it as an aberration and an occupational hazard of high-risk, high-reward cricket that the team swears by.

"I don't know what England is going to try and do, but we have got to keep getting better at playing pace. And more importantly, I thought that today was probably one of the off days, because if you see the last two T20Is, we have got 190 on the board in both. So sometimes when you play a high-risk kind of game, these things can happen," Gambhir offered.

India captain Shreyas Iyer wasn't as benevolent in assessment after a dreadful start to his stint at the helm. "I think it was atrocious. I couldn't use a better word, honestly," Iyer said of the loss in the presentation ceremony, chiding his team for losing their way inside the Powerplay.

"Losing by such a big margin is definitely not acceptable. First things first, I feel that we need to accept this loss and completely go back to the drawing board and see what we did wrong. Looking at the wicket, I don't think that it was a 200 wicket. But other than that, the way we batted, we lost four (five) wickets in the Powerplay. I think that itself did create the momentum, and definitely I feel that we lost over there. So, we've got to go back to the drawing board."

Gambhir meanwhile, felt another contributing factor to India's recent missteps have been the level of reset they've undergone. "If you see, there have been changes to this T20 team. When you go to reset your T20 side, then many times you get such performances. If you see the playing XI of the World Cup final and the one today, there are a lot of changes. Whether you take the captain, the opening batters... Hardik Pandya is not there, Jasprit Bumrah is not there. So when you go to reset again, it takes a little time."

He admitted the importance of results at this level but also called for practicality and time for things to revert to normalcy.

"A 15-year-old player is opening the batting, you have Prince Yadav who just played his second T20I. There's Harshit Rana who is just coming back from injury. It's very easy to say things but ultimately we see the results and no doubt, results are important in international cricket. But being practical is also very important. Many times you give time to the players to grow, to develop. But especially against such a team - England are a high-quality side - if you push players into such a deep sea, give them a little time and they will eventually develop. Because after a reset, things take time to get back to normal," Gambhir said.

That said, he reemphasised the need for his batters to do better while reading the game situation, and suggested aa situation-based recalibration of batting plans - an aspect of their game that they had to address even during the successful run at the World Cup.

"Because sometimes, it's a small thing, but Breeze can play a huge part as well.Sometimes, one side, where the dimensions are much bigger than the other side, that is important as well. So these small, small things in a T20 game can make a huge difference. And sometimes what happens is when everyone in the batting line-up starts playing high risk, high reward, sometimes these things can happen. So probably, in the middle-order, the experienced guys who've played enough international cricket need to adapt and probably play according to the situation as well.

"We did that during the World Cup as well. Our top three was firing and we wanted to get that high risk, high reward, but then we had 4 or 5 who were still able to build the innings and probably anchor it as well.That is something that we've lacked today and that's why we got the result. Again, I think it boils down to probably reading the game situation. I think that is something that we've lacked today," Gambhir said.