'It has been a very honest dressing room': Gambhir breaks silence on leaving out Arshdeep, Kuldeep

Gautam Gambhir breaks silence on ignoring Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav. (Photo: X)

When it comes to white-ball formats, Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh are two of India's biggest match-winners. While everyone is aware of Kuldeep's wizardry, Arshdeep is the team's top wicket-taker in Twenty20 Internationals. However, because they are frequently benched, particularly in the shortest format, these two frequently end themselves on the wrong side of the stick. Gautam Gambhir, the head coach of India, has now spoken out about dropping these two and the kinds of conversations he has been having with them.

This year, Arshdeep only participated in two Asia Cup matches and did not even start the Twenty20 International series against Australia. In a similar vein, Kuldeep was sent home to get ready for the next Test series against South Africa after being left out of the starting lineup for the third Twenty20 International in Australia.

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Gambhir talked candidly about making the difficult decision to exclude guys like Arshdeep and Kuldeep. Nonetheless, he claimed that both players are aware of the circumstances because the support staff has had open and sincere discussions with them.

“That's probably the toughest part of me as a coach. I think that's the toughest job I have, that sometimes when I know that there is so much of quality sitting on the bench and I know everyone deserves to be part of the playing XI, but ultimately you can only pick XI thinking that which is the best combination to do the job on that particular day,” Gambhir said in an interview with BCCI.TV.

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“But for me, the most important thing is the conversation and the communication as well. So the communication needs to be very clear, very honest; sometimes, obviously, those are hard conversations to have. If you tell someone that he's not playing, this is probably the toughest conversation for a coach and a player as well, because I know that the player would get upset when he deserves to be part of the playing XI,” he added.

Additionally, Gambhir said that he is still focused on having a healthy dressing room and that in order to achieve this, heart-to-heart talks must take place whenever a player is left out, particularly when they should be in the starting lineup.

“If you're honest, if you're straightforward, if you know that what you're saying is saying it from the heart and there is nothing beyond that, so I feel that our players do understand that. And it's a communication between a player and a coach, and I think it should stay till then rather than people making a lot of hue and cry and different theories about it,” said Gambhir.

“That is something which I think this group and the support staff have done brilliantly because I think it has been a very transparent dressing room, it has been a very honest dressing room, and that is something how we want this dressing room to be like," he added.