‘Shameful’: Gambhir hits back at Srikkanth over inclusion of Harshit Rana for Australia tour

Head coach Gautam Gambhir defended the selection of Harshit Rana and lashed out at former cricketer and chairman of selectors K. Srikkanth for insinuating, on his YouTube channel, that the 23-year-old made the cut only for the Australia tour only because he is the coach’s ‘yes-man’.

The criticism from Srikkanth went viral on social media, leading to trolling and personal jibes at Harshit, who has played two Tests, five ODIs and three T20 Internationals and picked 19 wickets combined so far.

“Look, it’s a little shameful if you don’t even leave a 23-year-old child to run your YouTube channel. Ultimately, his father is not an ex-chairman or an ex-cricketer or an NRI. No matter how much he plays, he plays on his own. And he will continue to play on his own.

“You can target people’s performance, and there are selectors and coaches who will do that. Criticise me, I can still handle it. So, that is something which is not acceptable. I think that is why you need to be careful about what you say just to run your YouTube channel,” Gambhir said.

Report | Rahul’s fifty helps India polish off series sweep vs West Indies

Just five days ahead of the Australia tour, India completed a series sweep over West Indies on Tuesday and headed into a six-week stretch where it will play ODIs, T20Is and Tests, with little time to allow segue through the formats.

A slew of names will overlap across the three formats, but Gambhir urged those limited to one format to return to domestic cricket during the interludes.

“It is tough on players, especially those who are playing all three formats. But I thought that the best thing that happened in this series was the way the Test guys prepared before the series. Going to play the India A game against Australia A was important. Playing Ranji Trophy before the South Africa series is going to be equally important as well.

“Sometimes it’s difficult but that is what professionalism is all about. Try and use the days as best as you can because we know that there are very quick turnarounds. But again, the guys who are just part of Test cricket, I think for them to prepare and play domestic cricket is very, very important; rather than just going to the NCA and working on their skills,” Gambhir said.

Published on Oct 14, 2025