Manoj Tiwary feels Gambhir played a role in the removal of Rohit Sharma as India’s ODI captain

Tiwary feels that GautamGambhir influenced AjitAgarkar’s decision to remove Rohit from India’s ODI captaincy.

Former India cricketer Manoj Tiwary recently spoke about Rohit Sharma’s removal as India’s ODI captain. Tiwary said he feels India head coach GautamGambhir had a role to play in it, likely ‘influencing’ AjitAgarkar’s decision on the call.

Manoj Tiwary believes Agarkar likely couldn’t have made the decision alone.

Tiwary believes that though AjitAgarkar is a strong character and takes decisions on his own accord, he couldn’t have taken the decision of Rohit Sharma’s removal as India’s ODI captain solely and that Gambhir’s take would have certainly played a role in the call. Speaking to a leading portal, he said, “I don’t know what the main cause is. But knowing AjitAgarkar, he is a personality. He is a decision maker. He will not take a step back in taking such steps. But whether he was influenced by someone to fire the gun from his shoulder is something we need to look at. A lot of things happen behind the scenes, which makes 1+1 2. Maybe the decision was made by the chief selector, and he was very upfront about it. Naturally, the coach’s inputs must be there. You cannot make the decision on your own. Both are equally responsible for whatever decision was made.” He also said he has lost interest in watching India’s ODI matches now, as Rohit is no longer the captain, despite the presence of ViratKohli. He feels Rohit also isn’t at his animated best and believes that once Rohit made the iconic ‘garden boys’ remark, it has taken a backseat.

Manoj Tiwary fails to understand the logic behind Rohit’s removal as ODI captain.

Tiwary fails to understand the logic behind Rohit’s removal as ODI captain and mentioned that it doesn’t make sense for the selectors to question his intention or leadership skills. He said, “See, there has been a lot of inconsistency in picking the playing XI, in my opinion. If I have to be brutally honest with you, I have lost interest in watching the ODI games. The things that have panned out of late, when the T20 World Cup-winning captain and the Champions Trophy-winning captain is removed from the captaincy, and the responsibility is given to the new guy, which I felt was not required. I have played with Rohit. We have a connection, so I didn’t like how it panned out. I felt it was disrespectful to a cricketer who has given so much to the cricket lovers across the world. From that day, I lost a bit of interest. A lot of controversies, and I feel that is happening because the clarity is not there.”

Tiwary added, “It would have made this decision more sensible, because Rohit is a proven captain. He has won two ICC trophies. We nearly missed out in 2023. I felt Travis Head was lucky; it was his day. If we had won that, Rohit would have ended up with three trophies. I just wonder why you had doubts regarding Rohit playing the 2027 World Cup. That means you doubted his abilities. Why would you do that? When he has scored three double hundreds, there was no question of doubting him. A big player always gets the runs. The mindset with which he played in 2023, he is such a selfless cricketer, he wanted to make a statement. Doubting his ability was a big mistake, and then removing him from captaincy was a big mistake as well. I thought it shouldn’t have happened. It cannot be cricketing logic behind his removal as the captain.”