India vs Australia 2024: THIS star cricketer slams BCCI decision to send Gautam Gambhir to face media, says ‘Rohit Sharma and Ajit Agarkar are better…’

Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir came up in front against the media ahead of the team’s departure for Australia for the five-Test match series on Monday. Gambhir was facing the media for the first time since India’s 3-0 whitewash in the Test series at home against New Zealand.

It was an explosive press conference with the Team India head coach as Gambhir didn’t back off. The former India opener asked detractors like former Australia Ricky Ponting to mind their own business after the latter had questioned the form of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in Test cricket.

The media conference prompted former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar to write on social media platform ‘X’ that it would be better for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to send Rohit or chief selector Ajit Agarkar to speak to the media instead of Gambhir and ‘let him work behind the scenes’.

“Just watched Gambhir in the press conference. May be wise for @BCCI to keep him away from such duties, let him work behind the scenes. He does not have the right demeanour nor the words when interacting with them. Rohit & Agarkar, much better guys to front up for the media,” Manjrekar tweeted.

 

Just watched Gambhir in the press conference.
May be wise for @BCCI to keep him away from such duties, let him work behind the scenes. He does not have the right demeanour nor the words when interacting with them. Rohit & Agarkar, much better guys to front up for the media.

— Sanjay Manjrekar (@sanjaymanjrekar) November 11, 2024

Gambhir on Monday fired a shot back at Ponting for questioning Kohli’s form and place in Indian team, saying the Australian legend should only be concerned about cricket in his country. Ponting had recently said Kohli’s form is a concern, given the Indian batter has scored only two Test centuries in last five years but also felt that the Indian legend has it in him to roar back to form and there is no better place than Australia to do so.

“What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? I think he should think about Australian cricket. More importantly, I have got no concerns whatsoever for Virat and Rohit,” Gambhir said during an interaction with media before leaving for Australia.

Kohli has just one fifty this year – 70 against Bangladesh in Kanpur Test – while his last Test century came in July 2023 against the West Indies. Someone, who averaged above 50 in Test cricket from 2016 to 2019, Kohli has managed only 1838 runs from 34 Tests at an average of 31.68, with two centuries since then.