The dislike that Gautam Gambhir has for Mahendra Singh Dhoni is well known. Time and again, the former India opener turned politician has targeted his former captain, much to the annoyance of the latter's legion of fans.
Now, the MP from East Delhi has again gone ballistic in his criticism of MSD by describing the rotation policy he used while captaining the Indian team as 'Absolute crap.' In an interview given to a news website, Gambhir unloaded his pent up anger at being kept out of the team at certain times, especially during the 2012 Triangular series in Australia.
"This rotation policy you are talking about, according to me, it was absolute crap. It was a useless thing ... He (Dhoni) was the captain and it was his decision. I have always believed, the one who is captain, his decision, one must follow it. But if you ask me, it was complete crap.
"If you believed so much in rotation policy, then, you started with rotation policy, but, in the same series, when you desperately needed to win matches in order to qualify for the finals, why did you play all three (Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar)? You should have stuck with it. If I have taken a decision, I can't change that decision after three matches," Gambhir told Lallantop.
But the left-hander wasn't done yet. He further added: "If you were preparing for the 2015 World Cup, then you shouldn't have thought about reaching or not reaching the final of CB series. You took the decision, stick with it! What you shouldn't do is, one day you apply the rotation policy and then, after four matches in which you didn't get the result, when you have to win, and you have question marks being raised about yourself, you start playing all three together."
The series that Gambhir is referring to took place in early 2012 in Australia and involved, apart from India, the hosts, and Sri Lanka. Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were part of the team. But in spite of them having been the prolific top-three that India had in their World Cup-winning campaign of 2011, they were subjected to a rotation policy where all three were not supposed to play together in the same match.
This, according to Dhoni at the time, was due to the fact that they were senior players and not as good at fielding as other men in the squad. However, as Gambhir stated, when India could no longer afford to lose matches, all three were brought into the side. It is worth remembering that even Ravi Shastri, now a great defender of Dhoni and then a commentator, had severely criticised MSD for this tactic.
