Sachin Tendulkar’s 100th Ton Should Be In A Winning Cause : Gambhir

Taking responsibility for not giving the Indian team a good start in the series against Australia, opener Gautam Gambhir said the players deserved the criticism from the fans."We have not played well. If you want to be number 1 we have to start winning series. Whatever backlash is happening back home, we accept it. We have let the nation down. Hopefully we can turn it around," Gambhir said.

Calling the series a "disappointing" one for India, the left-hander said: "I don't think things have gone our way but we will hope that we are positive."He also said that the team would want to win the Adelaide Test as they "want to take a win going into the ODI series".

Rejecting the hype around Sachin Tendulkar's hundredth hundred, Gambhir said that the objective of the team was to win the series."The objective was to win the series. If Sachin scored his 100th 100 and we lost, we would not have been happy.""Australia is always a tough place to win. We should not be hesitant to give credit to the opposition. They always kept us on the hook," he said.

Gambhir also defended VVS Laxman, who has been struggling badly on this tour and suggestions are being made that he should call it quits."Why criticize one person? Why look at only VVS? He has been a legend. Nobody should decide on his retirement. Only he should," Gambhir said.

According to Gambhir, Wriddhiman Saha, who would be keeping wickets in the absence of MS Dhoni as the Indian skipper is serving a one Test match ban for slow over-rate, is excited about start. Virender Sehwag will be leading the side.

© NDTV