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India head coach Gautam Gambhir remarked that dropping players like Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav is the "toughest part of his job" and said that communication with the player becomes very important in such situations. This comes after both Arshdeep and Kuldeep didn't feature entirely in the five-match T20I series against Australia. While the former was picked thrice in the playing XI, the latter only got two chances to play throughout the series.
A move that saw Gambhir come under a lot of scrutiny was his decision to favour Harshit Rana over Arshdeep in the opening two games against Australia. Notably, Arshdeep is India's top wicket-taker in T20Is with 105 scalps under his belt while Harshit is yet to fully convince the selectors if he is ready to deliver at the highest level on a constant basis. Now, Gambhir has broken his silence on the matter and has said that the decision was taken in order to identify which bowling combination would work the best on Australian pitches.
“Look, that’s probably the toughest part for me as a coach. I think that’s the toughest job I have, that sometimes when I know that there is so much quality sitting on the bench and I know everyone deserves to be part of the playing 11, but ultimately you can only pick 11, thinking about which is the best combination that can do the job on that particular day," Gambhir said in an interview with the BCCI.
“But for me, the most important thing is the conversation and the communication as well. The communication needs to be very clear, very honest. Sometimes, obviously, those are hard conversations. If you tell someone that he’s not playing, this is probably the toughest conversation for a coach and a player as well, because I know that the player would get upset when he deserves to be part of the playing 11," he added.
Harshit was dropped after 2nd T20I
Though Harshit did play a valiant inning of 35 runs in the second T20I, he massively underperformed with the ball and gave away 27 runs in just two overs. This performance saw him get dropped from the playing XI in the next game for Arshdeep. The latter delivered right away and picked up three wickets in the third T20I be4fore bowling a tight three-over spell of 1/22 in the next game.
India's next T20I opponent to be South Africa
With India's next T20I assignment set to be a five-match home series against South Africa, it remains to be seen what bowling combination would the team management go for and if they will prefer Harshit over Arshdeep once again.
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