The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Vice-President Rajeev Shukla echoed the sentiments of head coach Gautam Gambhir about the heavy criticism young pacer Harshit Rana has been receiving of late over his selection in the ODI series against Australia. The Delhi player is believed to be a favorite of the coach, and the reason is believed of his rapid rise in last year across all formats.
After the BCCI Men's selection committee, Ajit Agarkar announced the squad for the white-ball tour Down Under, fans, experts, and critics questioned Rana's selection in the team for the games scheduled to begin in Perth on Sunday, October 19. Former captain and selector Kris Srikkant also shared his thoughts on the 23-year-old's inclusion in ODI sand T20Is, stating, Harshit as "one permanent member of the team."
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Certain sections of fans expressed disappointment in the young pacer's inclusion over the experienced seamer Mohammad Shami, who was the joint-highest wicket-taker in India's title-winning Champions Trophy victory earlier this year. In a post-match conference after the West Indies Test series, Gambhir launched a scathing attack on Rana's critics. Shukla also said that criticism should be done more responsibly, which does not bring the young player's morale down.
"Gautam Gambhir is right. If someone has complaints about the players, then it should be done responsibly. This will bring the player's morale down. It is the job of the team to select players. So before you say something about the players, you should think about how much responsibility you should take," Shukla said while speaking exclusively to ANI.
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Gambhir lashes out at experts for targeting Harshit Rana to get YouTube views
After India whitewashed West Indies to clinch the series 2-0, the head coach did not hold back while subtly taking a dig at Srikkant for his over the top comments, urging them to stop negatively speaking about players to get views on their YouTube channel.
"It's a little shameful that you are targeting a 23-year-old personally. Harshit's father is not a former chairman. It is fair that you target an individual. You can target people's performance. And there are selectors and coaches who will target people's performance. But if you say such things to a 23-year-old kid, then social media amplifies it even more, or you are told so many things on social media, imagine the mindset," Gambhir told reporters in the post-match press conference.
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"What you say is just to run your YouTube channel. I think you've got, every one of us, not only me, you guys, everyone of us has morale responsibility towards Indian Cricket. Indian Cricket doesn't belong to the people sitting in that dressing room. It belongs to all of you as well. It belongs to every Indian who genuinely wants Indian Cricket to do well. So you criticize, but do it on performance. Don't do it because you want to target an individual," he added.
