Legendary Harbhajan Singh's recent statement on India head coach Rahul Dravid hasn't gone well with fans after the former claimed that the latter wasn't suited to guide the national team in T20Is.
Since India failed to end their T20 World Cup drought in Australia earlier this month, Harbhajan Singh has been quite vocal about what the side needs to do to reclaim their lost glory in the format.
Among the key suggestions he made was to make Ashish Nehra the coach of India's T20I team.
“In the T20 format you can have someone like Ashish Nehra who recently retired from the game. He knows this better than, with all due respect to Rahul, we have played together for so many years, he has vast knowledge but this is a tricky format. Someone who has played the game more recently is better suited for the coaching job in T20s. I am not saying you remove Rahul from T20. Ashish and Rahul can work together to build this team for the 2024 World Cup,” Harbhajan Singh told Press Trust of India.
“With such an arrangement, it is easy for Rahul Dravid as well who can take a break as well like he did for the New Zealand tour and Ashish can do the job in his absence,” Harbhajan Singh added.
Harbhajan Singh's comments, however, were not liked by a section of netizens who slammed him for undermining the good work Rahul Dravid has done with Team India.
Who is harbajan flat these rumours . Harbajan may shud go back to his truck driving job #crickettwitter#CricketContestByArjun ‘With all due to respect to Dravid…’: Harbhajan names better India T20I coach https://t.co/ID0LZBvVq6
via @@HTSportsNews— kman (@AnandParakkal7) November 24, 2022
@harbhajan_singh Ab tum bhi bologe …. Kiske baare mei baat kar rahe ho pata hai na .. https://t.co/0vSC9FwPJG
— Suman Kumar (@suman_1216) November 24, 2022
This is not the first time Harbhajan Singh has been critical of Rahul Dravid's coaching style in T20Is.
Only two weeks ago he had slammed him for persisting with players like KL Rahul who was too defensive in their approach and blamed Rahul Dravid's poor selection for India's ouster from the T20 World Cup in the semifinals.
After progressing through to the semifinals, the Men in Blue was given a 10-wicket hammering by eventual champions England in the semis after India's batters posted a below-par total on the board which was subsequently chased down with the minimum of effort by Alex Hales and Jos Buttler.
“It's not just about the captain. You should bring someone who has just retired. Someone who understands T20 format. With all due respect to Rahul Dravid, he has been my colleague, I've played a lot of cricket with him, he is a great brain. If you don't want to remove him as T20 head coach then help him,” Harbhajan told India Today.
“Bring someone who has just retired, someone like Ashish Nehra, who has got a great cricketing brain. Look what he has done at Gujarat Titans as a coach. I don't mean just Ashish, it can be anyone who knows this format,” Harbhajan Singh stated.
“It will also encourage the young guys with what Ashish will bring into the team. It could also be anyone, who just retired. For captaincy, Hardik Pandya is my choice. There is no better choice. He is the best player in the team and you need more people like him in the team,” Harbhajan Singh signed off.
Earlier, former England captain Nasser Hussain ripped into India captain Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid for the Asian side's failure to win the recently concluded T20 World Cup in Australia.
“I had even asked Ravi Shastri, who was the coach of that team (in the last T20 World Cup) and he said ‘we played pretty timid cricket’ with the bat and that’s got to change. Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid came to change that, and they did it in bilaterals, they did it against England. Suryakumar Yadav smashed it around Trent Bridge, got a brilliant 115 (117 off 55). But then, you’ve got to take it into a game, where you know that if you lose, the sort of criticism you are going to get. The first time they took that into a knockout game, they slid back into their old style of being 66 for 2 in 10 overs,” Nasser Hussain told Sky Sports.
“India is still a massive force. You look at their team on paper. You look at the players they could’ve picked. It’s a bit like England. There were a couple of blows like most sides had, like Jasprit Bumrah and Jadeja being injured. But, when it comes to knockout games, the approach needs to change. There’s talk about younger guns coming through but it’s not the players, but the mindset,” Nasser Hussain remarked.
“They need an Eoin Morgan-type character to go in there and say play carefree cricket. 20 overs, go and smash it as much as you can for 20 overs. Play like you play in the IPL and smash it. Do it for India and don’t worry about the noise. Shut out the noise and we’ll back if you are bowled out for 120,” he stressed.
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