‘Stick To Your Domain’ - Gambhir SLAMS IPL Team Owner Who Called For His Sacking

In the aftermath of his team’s 2-1 series win over South Africa in the ODIs, Team India head coach Gautam Gambhir has slammed Delhi Capitals (DC) owner Parth Jindal for the comments the latter made in the wake of the side’s 0-2 Test whitewash at the hands of South Africa last month.

Jindal, someone known for his hot takes, took to X to call for Gambhir’s sacking from red-ball cricket.

“Not even close, what a complete thrashing at home! Don’t remember seeing our test side being so weak at home!!! This is what happens when red ball specialists are not picked. This team is nowhere near reflective of the deep strength we possess in the red ball format. Time for India to move to a specialist red ball coach for Test cricket  @BCCI,” Jindal had written on X.

Now, two weeks on, Gambhir has responded to the comments and has asked Jindal and others to ‘stick to their domain’.

“People that have nothing to do with cricket said things. An IPL team owner also wrote about split coaching. It’s important for people to stay in their domain. Because if we don’t go into someone’s domain, they also don’t have the right to come into our domain,” Gambhir said at the post-match press conference on December 6 (Saturday). 

Gambhir further spoke about how the criticism that followed after the Test series loss was overblown, and asserted that most people failed to take into account the fact that an in-transition India played the series without their best batter, Shubman Gill.

“Look, there were a lot of talks, no doubt, because the results didn’t go in our favour,” Gambhir said.

“But the most surprising thing is that no one – no media, no journalist – wrote that we played the first Test match without a captain, who didn’t bat in both innings. And the margin of defeat was 30 runs. Just because I don’t give excuses in press conferences, it doesn’t mean you avoid showing facts to the world or to the country.

“When you go through a transition and you lose your captain in that series, who is also the in-form batter in red-ball cricket, who has made around 1000 runs in the last seven Test matches – if you lose your captain against a team as good as this, then obviously it will be difficult to get the results, because there is not much experience in red-ball cricket. And the surprising thing is that no one even talked about this.”

The two teams will now clash in a five-match T20I series, starting on December 9 (Tuesday) in Cuttack.