BCCI whips Harshit Rana trollers after Gautam Gambhir's explosive 'YouTube channel' attack on Kris Srikkanth

BCCI whips Harshit Rana trollers after Gautam Gambhir's explosive 'YouTube channel' attack on Kris Srikkanth (PTI/Reuters Photos)

BCCI vice-president Rajeev Shukla backed Gautam Gambhir for his explosive take on Harshit Rana's trolling. The 23-year-old, who has previously worked with Gambhir at Kolkata Knight Riders, has been a regular feature in the squads for all three formats. However, his selection has raised questions among a section of fans and experts.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth even alleged favouritism in selection and many have linked Gambhir's reaction to his remarks, which he passed while speaking on his YouTube channel. He classified Harshit as "one permanent member in the team".

Shukla was in sync with head coach Gambhir about the backlash that young seamer has been exposed to. "Gautam Gambhir is right. If someone has any complaints about the players, then it should be done responsibly. This will bring the players' morale down. It is the job of the team to select players. So, before you say anything about the players, you should think about how much responsibility you should take," Shukla told ANI.

After India swept the series against the West Indies on Tuesday, Gambhir didn't mince his words while addressing the criticism around Harshit. He put a tag of "shameful" on those who have targeted the 23-year-old while subtly taking a dig at Srikkanth for his statement, urging them to refrain from commenting to get views on their YouTube channel.

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"It's a little shameful that you are targeting a 23-year-old personally. Harshit's father is not a former chairman. It is not fair that you target an individual. You can target people's performance. And there are selectors and coaches who will 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 so many things on social media, imagine the mindset," Gambhir told reporters in the post-match press conference.

"What you say is just to run your YouTube channel. I think you've got, every one of us, not only me, you guys, everyone of us has moral responsibility towards Indian cricket. Indian cricket doesn't belong to me. It doesn't belong to the people sitting in that dressing room. It belongs to all of you as well. It belongs to every Indian who genuinely wants Indian cricket to do well. So you can criticise, but do it on performance. Don't do it because you want to target an individual," he added.

-with ANI inputs