Former India opener Sunil Gavaskar took issue with his former opening partner, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, over his criticism of Harshit Rana ahead of the Australia tour. Gavaskar was happy to see Rana shine with a four-wicket haul in the third and final ODI against Australia in Sydney. He said players should not be criticised before they get a chance to perform.
“I am so happy to see Harshit Rana getting those four wickets because he has been under fire,” Gavaskar said on India Today. “That is a little bit hard to understand because at the end of the day, this is our team. And by all means, criticise after but not before. Because by criticising anybody before, any player, you are actually demoralising that player.”
Gavaskar and Srikkanth together scored 1680 runs as anopening partnership, in 55 ODI matches, at an average of 30.54.
He added that criticism should come only after a player fails to prove themselves in the series. “Once the series is over, you can by all means ask why he was picked because then you also have the benefit of hindsight,” said Gavaskar. “But once the team is selected, we should all absolutely 100% back the team and want it to win. Because at the end of the day, it is our team, it is India’s team.”
Srikkanth had raised serious questions about Rana’s place in the squad. He said on his YouTube channel, “There is only one permanent member – Harshit Rana. Nobody knows why he is there in the team. By chopping and changing all the time, they’ll dent the confidence of the players. You don’t pick some players even if they do well and take others even if they don’t. Best is to be like Harshit Rana and be a constant yes-man to Gambhir to be selected.”
Rana finished with six wickets in three matches at an average of 20.83 – the highest wicket-taker in the series.
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