On the first day of the New Year, several reports emerged claiming that there were divisions in the Indian dressing room. It happened just after India’s 184-run loss to Australia in the Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Floor. Head coach Gautam Gambhir is believed to have said: “a lot of things have happened (I’ve had enough) in his locker room speech, as the atmosphere in the locker room was “far from being best.” Reacting to such reports, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar said that all these stories are cooked up by the media to keep the fans and their users interested. He backed his opinion by saying that such stories emerge only after India loses a match.
“Every time the Indian team hasn’t done well, these things come up about divisions and all that. It’s a common story. It’s almost as if we feel that the Indian team cannot lose. So if they lose, there has been some reason other than cricket,” Gavaskar said India today.
“I don’t think any of the players really think about what has been written. “They just want to focus on how to improve from what they were in the previous test,” he added.
Amid speculation about locker room unrest following a big loss on Boxing Day Take a look at, Gambhir also clarified in a press conference that they were “just reports, not the truth”.
NDTV, through its sources, has understood that Rohit will probably be “rested” for the fifth take a look at vs Australia. Another point that has put Rohit’s selection for the match in doubt is that Gambhir attended the press conference on the eve of the match. The team captain usually attends the event.
Trying to find out the reason, Gavaskar said, “The captain addressed the media just two days ago, so maybe he felt that he did not need to address the media again and the coach had not addressed the media at all. So maybe the coach had to come in and say that none of that had happened, which again should tell you a thing or two about those reports.”
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