“I don’t have a magic wand. It’s been only a month since I have been involved with the team. These things depend on time,” remarked Gavaskar after India lost the third Test against Australia by 342 runs here on Friday.

It gave the Australians their first series win in India in 35 years — a crowning moment for stand-in captain Adam Gilchrist and an achievement which was to prove elusive to his more illustrious predecessors such as Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.

Indian batting has not hit their straps at all this season and it was expected that Gavaskar’s presence would allow the team to get over their batting blues.

“It doesn’t happen overnight. You can’t do it so early,” said Gavaskar helplessly.

Gavaskar opined India needed to bat with more maturity when it chased Australia’s first innings total of 398 in Nagpur.

“More maturity was needed to chase a total of 398. We needed to bat more responsibly.”

Gavaskar didn’t want to name anyone in particular but said the openers needed to apply themselves better to give the team a good start.

“I don’t want to name anyone as villains. But openers could have been more careful.”

The legendary opener was exasperated that Indians were gifting away their wickets to even ordinary deliveries.

“We are gifting away our wickets. Only the delivery with which Glenn McGrath bowled Rahul Dravid in the first innings in Bangalore was a deserving one.”

Gavaskar said it appeared to him the entire team was off-form and compared it to the Indian team of 1974 which toured England and lost the series 3-0.

“The entire team is struggling to get runs. It is just opposite to what happened in Australia and Pakistan last season when all of the top batsmen were in good form. Whoever then played got runs.

“Not that this is a rare moment... I remember in 1974 all of us were not in good nick.”

There was a particular stretch in Nagpur in India’s first innings when the duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, normally the soundest of Indian pair, took 77 balls to score 15 runs. “What should I say, I too am searching for an answer.”

In the midst of a slump in batting form, Gavaskar still doesn’t feel the team batted too badly in Chennai.

“Bangalore and Nagpur yes. But not in Chennai. I don’t think we batted badly there.”

India needed 210 runs with all 10 wickets in hand on the final day of the second Test in Chennai but unfortunately rain washed out the entire day’s play.

Glenn McGrath has virtually choked the Indian batting line-up with his nagging line and length but Gavaskar refuses to believe the Australian fast bowler in unplayable.

How to come to terms with a bowler who bowls a nagging line six inches outside the off-stump with a busy off-side field?

“Persistence is a key word. If he bowls outside the off-stump, let him bowl. One just needs to stay at the wicket. A time will come when he would lose his energy. He would then try to bowl to stumps. That’s the time when the batsmen can score.

“This is Test cricket. A batsman should not be dictated by where the bowler is bowling and pitching his deliveries. It is batsman who should decide where the bowler should be bowling.