Manoj Tiwary, the former Indian batsman, has made it clear that he and current head coach Gautam Gambhir don’t get along. Their bad blood started after a heated argument during a first-class match in Delhi. Tiwary has repeatedly said that Gambhir verbally abused him. Recently, Tiwary again targeted Gambhir calling him a hypocrite on some issues.
Tiwary brought up old interviews where Gambhir said India shouldn’t play Pakistan till cross border terrorism ends. Gambhir said the same after the Pahalgam terror attack earlier this year.
With the Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan still on, Tiwary questioned the decision to play given the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor. After a terrorist attack in Kashmir that killed 26 tourists earlier this year, India launched Operation Sindoor, targeting terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).
There have been increasing demands to boycott Pakistan in multi-nation tournaments. The Sports Ministry has said India will play against Pakistan in multilateral events so the match is still on.
India and Pakistan can play each other thrice in the Asia Cup. They will first meet in the group stage on September 14 in Dubai. If both teams advance they can also meet in the Super 4 and the final.
I always felt he’s a hypocrite, Tiwary told CrickTracker. He said India and Pakistan should never play each other when he wasn’t the coach. Now that he’s the coach of the team that will play Pakistan in the Asia Cup, what will he do? Why can’t he just resign and say he won’t be part of the team because they are playing Pakistan?
Several opposition MPs have asked the Indian government to stop the upcoming Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan.
India’s Asia Cup squad was announced last week. Suryakumar Yadav will captain the team, with Shubman Gill as his deputy. Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal were left out of the team, with Jaiswal listed as one of the reserves.
After the squad announcement, an old video clip of Gambhir supporting Jaiswal’s inclusion in the T20I lineup went viral. Note that the video is from before Gambhir became India’s head coach. Tiwary brought up this video as another example of Gambhir not practicing what he preaches after becoming the head coach.
He said Yashasvi Jaiswal is a future player for Team India and shouldn’t be left out of the T20 team, he should be given a longer run. But now he’s not in the team, Tiwary said. So, apart from these two statements he’s done the opposite of what he said. I always felt he’s a hypocrite and he always was.
