Former India opener Gautam Gambhir on Saturday came down hard on Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s captaincy during the 2012 CB series in Australia.
Gambhir, in an explosive interview with India Today, reveaked how he Dhoni told him that he couldn’t play him, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag in the ODI playing XI as they would leak runs on the field in Australia.
But Gambhir was eventually included in the ODI final XI for the tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka.
Gambhir and Tendulkar eventually got to play 7 matches in the series while Sehwag featured in 5. Gambhir amassed 308 runs at an average of 44 and was the second highest run-scorer for India behind Virat Kohli while Tendulkar and Sehwag managed just 143 and 65 runs respectively.
“In the 2012 Tri-series in Australia, Dhoni declared that he can’t play all three (Gambhir, Sachin and Sehwag) of us together as he was looking ahead at the 2015 World Cup.
“It was a massive shock, I think it would have been a massive shock for any cricketer. I have not heard anyone be told in 2012 that they would never be a part of the 2015 World Cup. I always had the impression that if you keep scoring runs, age is a just a number,” Gambhir told India Today.
“If you have the skills to score the runs and you are not a liability on the field, you can go on to play as long as you want. This was always told to us and even in Australia we got to know that all the three can’t play together, and we eventually got to play together.
“When we were in a desperate need to win a game, I remember in Hobart, Viru and Sachin opened and I batted at three with Virat batted at four. India won that game and we had to chase in 37 over.
“At the start of the series, we didn’t play together, it was a rotation thing. When it was a desperate moment, MS had to play three of us. If you take a decision, back your decision, stick to it. Don’t back on something on which you have already decided.
“First you decided that you won’t play the three of us together, then you decided that you are going to play the three of us together. Either the original decision was wrong, or the second decision was wrong. He took that decision as a captain and it was a shock to all three of us,” Gambhir added.
India got knocked out in the CB series with Australia and Sri Lanka qualifying for the best-of-three finals which the hosts won 2-1 to lift the trophy.
Dhoni apparently had a meeting with Gambhir, Sehwag and Sachin before the series where he stated that playing all three would cost 20 runs in the field in Australian conditions which is why he wanted to rotate the three openers in the CB Series.
“We had a meeting, he (Dhoni) chatted with everyone, with Gautam and myself and Tendulkar; he explained that he wanted to give chances to youngsters so youngsters can play all the matches here because the next World Cup is also here, so they’ll get an idea of how the pitches behave in Australia,” Sehwag had said during the series.
[“source=indiatoday]
