Former India and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Manoj Tiwary has gone on a rant in criticism of current senior national team head coach Gautam Gambhir. Tiwary and Gambhir have been teammates in the past, not just in the Indian Premier League but also for the Delhi state team. As Gambhir faces criticism over his poor handling of the Indian team, owing to the recent results against Australia and New Zealand in Tests, Tiwary went on to brand him a ‘hypocrite’, who doesn’t do what he himself preaches.
The criticism Gambhir faced recently, especially from Tiwary, saw India pacer Harshit Rana, who made his Test debut in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, jump to his defence. But, Rana’s defence doesn’t surprise Tiwary.
“Why wouldn’t Nitish Rana and Harshit Rana, for example, not support Gautam Gambhir? Harshit Rana played in Perth in place of Akash Deep. How was that possible? What did Akash Deep do wrong? He bowled fantastic spells against Bangladesh and New Zealand. As a fast bowler, you dream about bowling in friendly conditions, but you dropped him and went in with Harshit, who doesn’t have that much first-class experience. Akash Deep has fabulous records. That is a completely biased selection. That is why players will come out and defend him,” said Tiwary in a chat with Hindustan Times.
“I have said nothing wrong. This is PR which I am talking about. That never used to happen. When something or someone speaks the facts, people come up defending the individual, but they don’t know me. I only speak on facts. PR is quite evident,” he added.
Tiwary also opened some old chapters of his relationship with Gambhir, saying the latter even abused his family and said bad things about former India captain Sourav Ganguly.
“When he fought with me during the Ranji Trophy match in Delhi, everyone heard every word from Gautam Gambhir’s mouth. Whether he was talking bad about Sourav Ganguly or whether he was abusing my family, he was protected by a few of the individuals. This is the PR I am talking about. The process of picking players and selecting them in the playing XI is not happening properly. Akash Deep was dropped in favour of Harshit Rana. If you thought Harshit was so good, why didn’t you continue with him for the rest of the series? Akash Deep doesn’t have a voice,” said Tiwary.
Tiwary remains sceptical of Gambhir’s decisions in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He questioned the selection of players like Harshit Rana and Devdutt Padikkal over other proven First-Class cricket performers.
“How was Devdutt Padikkal included in the Test squad, he was out of the equation. How did he come into the mix when Abhimanyu Easwaran was there, scoring so many runs non-stop? He has scored so many runs. Why wasn’t he selected and not played at No.3. These are the kinds of things happening, and the results are there for everyone to see,” he asserted.
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