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On Thursday, January 2, Team India Head Coach Gautam Gambhir finally broke silence on the ongoing controversy in the Indian dressing room during their tour of Australia. Notably, after India’s 184-run defeat against Australia in Melbourne, reports flooded social media claiming that all is not well in the Indian dressing room.
Moreover, the report by The Indian Express stated that Gautam Gambhir is at crossroads with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), along with not being in sync with the players in the dressing room during the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25. It further added that Gambhir lost his cool at players after the Melbourne loss.
That's not the truth: Gautam Gambhir refutes dressing room rift reports
Speaking on the eve of the New Year’s Test in Sydney, head coach Gautam Gambhir refuted the rift reports going viral on social media. He added that the team is in unity and preparing for the final Test of the series, set to get underway at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Friday, January 3. "Those are just reports. That's not the truth. I don't think I need to answer to any reports, to be honest. And there are some honest words. That's all I can say. Honesty is extremely important if you want to go on and achieve some great things," he said.
Watch video of Gautam Gambhir refuting dressing room rift reports:
The coach also mentioned that as cricket is a team sport, the conversation between the players and the coach should remain within closed doors and shouldn’t be leaked. “Team first. It’s a team game, and everyone understands this. Debates between a player and a coach should stay between them. Any conversations in the dressing room should stay in the dressing room,” he said.
With the fifth Test just hours away from start, India will miss the services of Akash Deep, who has been ruled out with back injury. In his absence, they are likely to call in Harshit Rana or Prasidh Krishna.
India’s squad for BGT 2024-25
Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar.
Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed
