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Former Indian batter and Member of Parliament Gautam Gambhir has called out the Rohit Sharma-led Team India for being too friendly against Pakistan during their Asia Cup 2023 match in Kandy, Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue started off their Asia Cup campaign in a washed out fixture against their arch-rival.
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But before and even in this high-octane encounter, players from both teams were seen exchanging pleasantries. These gestures seemingly triggered Gautam Gambhir, who believes that players need to put these friendships away and focus on the game. While speaking in the mid-game show on Star Sports, Gambhir emphasized on the importance of playing for India.
Gambhir asserted, “When you play on the field for your national team, you must leave the friendship outside the boundary ropes. Game face hona zaroori hai. Dosti bahaar rehni chahiye. There has to be an aggression in the eyes of both sets of players. You can be as friendly as you want after those six or seven hours of cricket. Those hours are very important, because you're not just representing yourself, you're representing a nation of over a billion.”
Further the Delhi-born batter expressed how these interactions have been more prevalent in recent times and some time back one wouldn’t seen these interactions. He said, "These days you see players of rival teams patting each other on the back and exchanging fist bumps during a match. You would never see that a few years ago. Aap friendly match hi khel rahe ho."
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Gautam Gambhir also shared about his friendship with ex-Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akhmal. He said, "We're very good friends. In fact, I gave him a bat and he gave me a bat too. I played one whole season with a bat Kamran had given me. We spoke for an hour recently," Gambhir added.
