Gautam Gambhir, who recently announced his retirement from cricket, has criticised the captaincy decisions taken by Mahendra Singh Dhoni during the 2012 CB series. It was a forgettable tour for the Indian team as they had been blanked in 4-match Test series and then did not have an entirely convincing tri-series which followed.
The Indian team had three openers in Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, and Sachin Tendulkar in the side and the captain made it clear that he could only play two players in the side in order to give more opportunities to the youngsters before the 2015 World Cup, a decision which did not sit well with Gambhir.
“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.
“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,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“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,” he added.
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India did not get any momentum in the series and eventually did not qualify for the finals. Australia went on to beat Sri Lanka in the finals.