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Former Indian opener and two-time World Champion cricketer, Gautam Gambhir has ignited the ‘hero worship’ debate once again in the Indian cricketing scenario. In an interview ahead of the team India’s first match against Pakistan in the 20-20 World Cup 2022, Gambhir opined on the subject and also made a remarkable statement on former Indian skipper and senior batter Virat Kohli.
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Gambhir also happened to compare Kohli with one of his current teammates in the Indian squad of the 20-20 World Cup 2022. The former southpaw was in a discussion on the Indo-Pak clash in the tournament opener for both teams. Subsequently, he echoed his stand on the subject that fans should talk about the Indian cricket team as a unit instead of giving hype to the individual players.
Gambhir spoke on the topic during his discussion on India versus Pakistan match with Zee. He feels that fans need to begin speaking about the Indian cricket team as a unit and not about individual players which he explained has been prevalent owing to media who have transformed these players into a brand.
He also compared the current Indian batting sensation Suryakumar Yadav with some of the finest batters like Virat Kohli and others.
We should all be talking about the Indian team - Gautam Gambhir
“Talk about Indian cricket. We should all be talking about the Indian team. We should stop hero worship. It shouldn't be there at all, but it's still prevalent because the media transform these players into brands. Suryakumar Yadav's performance, in the last year, has been better than all those six batters. But you did not ask me a single question about him. It is because he does not have as many followers on social media compared to other players. Even you first took the name of Virat Kohli, not Suryakumar. Maybe, Rohit Sharma would be next, then KL Rahul. But based on performance, Suryakumar, and Hardik Pandya have been the best in the Indian team," said Gambhir in his statement.
“When the Indian team leaves for World Cup, then we should all stop this hero worship. Worship the team. In fact, this has been the main reason why India has not been able to win any ICC trophies between 2011 and 2022,” he added later.