Key Points

The remarks, made by Srikkanth on his YouTube channel earlier this month, suggested that Rana's inclusion was less about merit and more about proximity, referring to his time with Gambhir, who was the mentor at Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) before becoming India's head coach in July 2024.

Gambhir, known for his forthrightness, responded sharply in the post-match press conference after India beat the West Indies by seven wickets to win the Test series 2-0 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, defending both the selection process and Rana's credentials, and slammed people for targeting young cricketers for the sake of earning popularity through their YouTube channels.

"Look, it's a little shameful, and I will be very honest with you. It is so unfair that you are targeting a 23-year-old kid for the sake of your YouTube channel because ultimately, his father is not an ex-chairman or an ex-cricketer or an NRI. No matter how much he plays cricket, he plays on his own strengths and will continue to play on his own merit. If you target someone individually, that is not fair.

"You can target people's performance, and there are selectors and coaches who target people's performance. But if you say such things to a 23-year-old kid, and then social media amplifies it even more, or you are told more of these things in such a way on social media, imagine the mindset. In future, someone can target your kid too. Someone can target anyone. At least you can realise that he is a 20-year-old kid not a 30 or 33-year-old ," he said.

New Delhi-based Rana, 22, was part of India's T20 Asia Cup-winning squad in the UAE last month and has been named among four specialist quicks for the three-match ODI series in Australia, starting on October 19 in Perth. So far Rana has played two Tests, five ODIs and three T20Is for India.

Gambhir also made it clear that selections for the Indian team are based on performance and not personal equations.

"You can criticise me, and I can still handle it. But a 23-year-old boy, is a 23-year-old boy. That is something which is not acceptable. I think that is why we need to be careful about what you say, just to run your YouTube channel.

"I think not only me, you guys, and every one of us have a moral responsibility towards Indian cricket. Indian cricket doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to people sitting in the dressing room. It belongs to all of you as well," he said.

"It belongs to every Indian, who genuinely wants Indian cricket to do well. So you can criticise, but only on performance. Don't do it because you want to target an Indian. You want to target someone, you target someone. You target me, that's okay.

"But, don't target a young boy, and, it is not only in Harshit's case, in future also, don't target these young boys. So, I think performance, we all know that it is important, results are important," Gambhir concluded.

- IANS