Former India cricketer Sadagoppan Ramesh alleged that head coach Gautam Gambhir for favouritism. He reckons that the World Cup-winning star backs the players he likes but completely lets go of those he doesn't. Gambhir has remained in the spotlight since he was announced as Rahul Dravid's successor for the role in July last year.
His journey as a coach has been a rollercoaster ride so far. He faced more downs than ups during the beginning of his journey. India lost the ODI series against England, and after that, India's humiliating defeats against New Zealand and Australia in three and five Test match series respectively. Gambhir's most recent Test achievement is the 2-2 draw against England. In the five-match Test series, India bounced back twice to eventually level the contest.
"He backs the players he likes but completely lets go of those he doesn't," said Ramesh on his YouTube channel as quoted by Sportskeeda.
However, the former India opener Sadagoppan Ramesh reckons that the series draw in England was a great achievement because the team performed poorly in Test cricket over the past year.
"The drawn series in England looks like a great achievement only because we performed poorly in Test cricket over the past year. Because winning consistently abroad had started long back under Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri. But now, just the drawn series in England gets looked at as a big achievement in Gambhir's track record," added Sadagoppan Ramesh.
Sadagoppan Ramesh also questioned India's selection in the Asia Cup 2025 squad. He said that Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal should have been picked for the continental event.
"Gambhir's actual biggest achievement remains the Champions Trophy triumph. Shreyas Iyer was the biggest reason for that result. Yet, Gambhir is not backing Shreyas Iyer. Someone like Jaiswal, who is an X-factor player, must play all the formats. Keeping him in the standby is a poor move," he said.
"Shreyas Iyer produced incredible performances in the same UAE in the Champions Trophy and should be a permanent fixture in India's white-ball teams. Players need to be backed when they are high on confidence and in form and not when they fade away and lack confidence. This is the ideal time to reap the rewards of Iyer's sky-high confidence and form," he added.
India’s squad for Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel