Gautam Gambhir Blasted By Ex-KKR Teammate After South Africa Loss: "No Great Achievement"

Former Indian cricket team and Kolkata Knight Riders batter Manoj Tiwary was extremely critical of Team India and head coach Gautam Gambhir after the Test series loss against South Africa. India slumped to a 408-run defeat in the second Test match in Guwahati and it was their second home Test series loss in two years. Tiwary said that the 'writing was on the wall' when it comes to India's defeat due to the constant changes to the playing XI and urged the BCCI to appoint a separate coach for red-ball cricket.

"To be honest, the writing was on the wall. It had to happen. I knew things were not going well; the process they want to follow is not the right strategy or plan. There was a lot of chopping and changing, which was very evident. That could have been in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, home series against New Zealand and now against South Africa," Tiwary told Hindustan Times.

"Absolutely. There is no question about it. (whether India should have a separate red-ball coach). It's high time they take this decision to save Indian Test cricket. That's the bottom line."

Tiwary went on to say that Gambhir cannot take the credit for India's Champions Trophy and AsiaCup triumphs as the teams were built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid and Virat Kohli. The ex-India batter went further to claim that there have been no great achievements during Gambhir's tenure.

"Apparently, Gambhir is claiming that he got a series draw in England with a young team. In my opinion, the England series draw was not a great thing for us. It wasn't a good result; the kind of players we had, it was England who made the mistake of playing too many shots on the last day. They could have easily won the series 3-1. There is no great achievement in his tenure so far," said Tiwary.

"I saw a clip of him claiming that he has won the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. This team was built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and, before that, Virat Kohli. Even if Gambhir wasn't the coach of Team India for these two tournaments, India would have won anyway because the team was already made. It is very unfortunate to see a white-ball mentor leading India as a head coach. If you don't have the experience at the ground level, how do you expect to give results at the top level? It is next to impossible," he added.

Topics mentioned in this article

Manoj Tiwary Gautam Gambhir India Cricket Team South Africa Cricket Team India vs South Africa 2025, India Cricket