Former England fast bowler Steve Harmison believes India head coach Gautam Gambhir took a subtle dig at cricket’s biggest superstars, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, after winning his maiden T20 World Cup.
Gambhir &his issues with superstar culture
After India dismantled New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium on March 8, Gambhir attended the post-match press conference with captain Suryakumar Yadav and continued to wage his war against superstar culture. The Indian coach had used Sanju Samson’s 97-run knock against the West Indies to criticise those who celebrate personal milestones.
“For too long in Indian cricket, we’ve spoken about milestones, and I hope, till I’m there, we’re not going to talk about milestones. You can see it very easily as well. You can see it in the last three games: what Sanju did – 97 not out, 89, and 89. Imagine if you would have been playing for a milestone; probably we wouldn’t have got 250. Stop celebrating milestones; celebrate trophies. That is going to be important because the bigger purpose of a team sport is winning trophies. Scoring personal runs has never mattered to me, and it will never matter to me,” Gambhir said in Ahmedabad after India won the final.
Dig at Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli
Harmison believes that Gambhir attempted to take a veiled dig at India’s two biggest cricket superstars, Rohit and Kohli, with the comments. For some time now, both have been celebrated more than anyone else in cricket. Media and even the broadcasters have lauded them, even in defeat.
“I enjoyed that from Gambhir. I thought it was a little dig at Rohit and Virat, talking about not being interested in milestones and only about the team winning… I like that. I sometimes struggle with Gautam. I did struggle with Gautam as a player, and I did struggle with him as a coach. But I liked that little dig at Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli,” Harmison said on the talkSPORT YouTube channel.
Tensions in dressing room?
The English pacer will be eagerly waiting for Rohit and Kohli to return to the dressing room, which’ll happen in June against Afghanistan, to see what happens. Perhaps tension will flare. But at this moment, Gambhir has the power since he’s led India to 2 ICC titles in 12 months.
“We might have everything going in our favour, but it’s about the team. It’s about the dressing room, and it’s not about individual milestones. It’ll be interesting when they walk back into the 50-over dressing room in the not-too-distant future, hearing that. He has got some kudos now because he has just won a trophy,” he added.
