Harbhajan Singh criticised the ‘superstar culture’ prevalent in the Indian cricket team and said that the side needs performers not superstars after the Test series defeat against Australia. Except for Jasprit Bumrah, star players like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had a horrible outing and the former spinner pointed out that selection for the away series against England should completely be dependent on performances. In order to make his point, Harbhajan went on to say that if players are getting picked just on the basis on their reputation, even Anil Kumble and Kapil Dev can find a place in the squad.
“There is a superstar culture which has developed. We don’t need superstars, we need performers. If the team has them (performers), it will move forward. Whoever wants to become a superstar should stay at home and play cricket there,” Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel.
“There is a tour of England coming up. Now everyone has started talking about what will happen in England, who will go, who will not go. For me, it is a simple matter. Only players who are performing should go. You can’t keep picking players on their reputation.”
“If you do that, then you should take Kapil Dev sir and Anil bhai also. Here, the BCCI and the selectors will have to be firm and act tough. I don’t think that the superstar attitude is taking the team forward.”
Meanwhile, Yashasvi Jaiswal vowed that the team will make a strong comeback after their 1-3 Border-Gavaskar Trophy defeat against Australia in Sydney on Sunday. India lost the final Test of the series by six wickets which ended their hopes of qualifying for the third consecutive World Test Championship (WTC) final.
It was also India’s first Test series defeat to Australia in a decade. They last lost the Test series in Australia in 2015. India successfully retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in the last four series including two in Australia.
However, this time the result was not in India’s favour as their batters struggled to score runs on Australian soil. Jasprit Bumrah was the only saving grace with memorable performances on the tour. He finished as the leading wicket-taker with 32 scalps and was named Player of the Series.
On the other hand, Jaiswal was the top performer with the bat for India accumulating 391 runs including a century and two fifties at an average of 43.44. Despite his outstanding effort, Jaiswal was not happy to finish on the losing side and was stressed to continue working hard. “Learnt a lot in Australia… Unfortunately, the result wasn’t what we had hoped for but we’ll be back stronger. Your support means everything,” Jaiswal wrote in a social media post.
(With IANS inputs)
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