Former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali has weighed in on the prevalent “superstar culture” in the Indian team and has advised head coach Gautam Gambhir to take a leaf out of Aaqib Javed’s book. His comments come after calls to drop Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli gained momentum following India’s 1-3 defeat in IND vs AUS Test series. Ali advised Gambhir to shun out players who don’t respect the game in order to turn around the fortunes for Team India.
“Gambhir should follow Aaqib Javed’s philosophy”
Javed earned praise for dropping stalwarts Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi and Naseem Shah midway through the PAK vs ENG series that saw Pakistan bounce back in the next two games to win the series. Javed was Basit Ali reckons that Gambhir should do the same for India.
“It’s the best time for Gautam Gambhir to adopt Aaqib Javed’s philosophy: ‘cricket ko izzat do; jo cricket ko izzat nahi dega, ta-ta bye bye.’ Aaqib ended the superstar culture in the Pakistan team. Those who thought ‘I am important’, he told them ‘it’s your false notion’. He said every player is equal,” Basit Ali said.
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Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma failed to perform in Australia, putting immense pressure on the rest of the batting order. After scoring just 31 runs in five innings, the Hitman decided to drop himself from the playing XI for the last Test. Meanwhile, Kohli was given a long rope but he continued to have problems with deliveries outside the off-stump, resulting in his dismissal in a similar fashion on all 8 occasions that he came out to bat in the series. While Gambhir has advised all the team members to return to domestic cricket to get “desired results”, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the veteran duo as India head into a transition phase.
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