On Monday, Yuvraj Singh celebrated his 41st birthday, and wishes poured in from all over the world. However, one particular post from Gautam Gambhir wasn't received well by the fans. The ex-India opener, the hero of India's victories in both the 2007 T20 and the 2011 World Cup finals, declared Yuvraj Singh “the best white-ball cricketer India has produced”, something that wasn't liked by certain cricket admirers as they were not in agreement with Gautam Gambhir's views.

While there's no doubt that Yuvraj Singh is among India's greatest white-ball cricketers, to label him the finest ever is a matter of debate for the pundits to decide. In the last three decades or so, some of the best cricketers of all time have been a part of Team India – from the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, current coach and former batting stalwart Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah have all made a name for themselves and have accomplished milestones unheard of. Though Yuvraj Singh will almost definitely find a place in the list of India's best cricketers of all time, to put him on top of all the above-mentioned names wasn't appreciated by the fans. Some Team India supporters even retweeted Gautam Gambhir's previous tweet for Rohit Sharma in which he had used identical words to wish the India captain on his birthday.

 

 

However, this isn't the first time when Gautam Gambhir has been slammed for his controversial remarks about an Indian player. Last month, faced flak for his comments about the national team’s batters following the Rohit Sharma-led side’s victory over Zimbabwe in their T20 World Cup game in Melbourne.

After India made it through to the semifinals of the competition with the help of Suryakumar (Surya) Yadav’s blistering 61 off 25 balls, Gautam Gambhir said that Surya was the player of the tournament for him. His statement, however, didn't please Virat Kohli fans who blasted him for always undermining the Delhi-born cricket star’s performances.

Some went as far as to say that Gautam Gambhir was still feeling insecure with Virat Kohli despite having retired from the sport a couple of years ago. Others called him jealous, while a few dubbed him an “idiot” whose opinion didn’t matter to anyone.

“There are players like Virat Kohli, KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, who are very orthodox players. Suryakumar Yadav is different. Enjoy, watch and relish it. Because you don’t get these kind of players that often and India has never had this kind of player, especially batting at No.4. You will get traditional players who will give you much more consistency, but imagine the strike rate if Suryakumar, what was it, 180 I guess? Above 200 runs, three fifties…he is the Player of the Tournament for me already even if India don’t go on to win it. He is already the best because the kind of impact he has had,” Gautam Gambhir said at the time.

“He does not get the luxury of playing those first six overs. But he bats at No.4 and with a strike rate of 175/180. No batter at No.4 has that kind of an impact in this World Cup,” Gautam Gambhir added.

Previously, Gautam Gambhir faced flak on social media for his comments against former captains MS Dhoni and Kapil Dev.

Gautam Gambhir who retired from all forms of cricket in 2018 was speaking about the culture of “hero worship” in Indian cricket and categorically pointed his fingers toward three legends – Kapil Dev, MS Dhoni, and Virat Kohli.

Gautam Gambhir claimed that the “hero worship” of these men has led to the creation of monsters in Team India’s dressing room.

According to the cricketer-turned-politician, this culture of “hero worship” first began in India after the 1983 World Cup when Kapil Dev earned the status of a demigod in the country.

Subsequently, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli joined the Haryana Hurricane in that club due to their extraordinary record on the turf.

“Don’t create monsters in the dressing room. Only monster should be Indian cricket, not an individual,” Gautam Gambhir said during the ‘Idea Exchange’ show organized by the Indian Express newspaper.

“When Virat Kohli got a 100 and there was this young guy from a small town of Meerut [Bhuvneshwar Kumar], who also managed to get five wickets, no one even bothered to speak about him. This was so unfortunate. I was the only one, during that commentary stint, who said that. He bowled four overs and got five wickets and I don’t think anyone knows about that. But Kohli scores a 100 and there are celebrations everywhere in this country. India needs to come out of this hero worship. Whether it’s Indian cricket, whether it’s politics, whether it’s Delhi cricket. We have to stop worshipping heroes. The only thing that we need to worship is Indian cricket, or for that matter Delhi or India,” he stated.

“Who created that? It is created by two things. First, by social media followers, which is probably the fakest thing in this country because you are judged by how many followers you have. That is what creates a brand,” Gautam Gambhir elaborated.