"This team was built by Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma"- Ex-India star attacks Gautam Gambhir over his "I'm the same guy who won ICC Champions Trophy" comment

Manoj Tiwary feels Gautam Gambhir lacks ground-level experience to coach India.

Former Indian player Manoj Tiwary has attacked current head coach Gautam Gambhir over his comments following Indian Cricket Team’s defeat against South Africa Cricket Team in the recently concluded test series. Tiwary also expressed his doubts over Gambhir’s experience to coach national team.

Tiwary’s comments came after India faced a humiliating 2-0 whitewash against South Africa in the two-match series at home. Losing the opening game by a close margin of 30 runs and the second game by a massive margin of 408 runs, India faced their second test series defeat at home under Gambhir’s coaching.

Moreover, India also registered the unwanted record for losing a test by the highest margin of runs in Guwahati. Following the series defeat, Gambhir defended himself in the press conference by saying that it was only under him that India won ICC Champions Trophy 2025, Asia Cup 2025 and drew series in England.

However, it did not go well with cricketer-turned-politician Tiwary, who said that Gambhir should not get credit for winning these two tournaments. He also added that India would have won these campaigns even if Gambhir was not the head coach.

This team was built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and, before that, Virat Kohli: Manoj Tiwary attacks Gambhir

In an interaction with Hindustan Times, the former Bengal player said that the current Indian team was built by Rahul Dravid, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli. He also added that it was unfortunate to see a white-ball mentor getting the role of head coach.

“I saw a clip of him claiming that he has won the Champions Trophy and Asia Cup. This team was built by Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid, and, before that, Virat Kohli. Even if Gambhir wasn’t the coach of Team India for these two tournaments, India would have won anyway because the team was already made,” he said.

“It is very unfortunate to see a white-ball mentor leading India as a head coach. If you don’t have the experience at the ground level, how do you expect to give results at the top level? It is next to impossible,” he added.

There was a lot of chopping and changing, which was very evident: Manoj Tiwary

Tiwary also termed the frequent shuffling of players as a key reason for India’s failure in the longest format and backed a separate coach for test cricket.

“To be honest, the writing was on the wall. It had to happen. I knew things were not going well; the process they want to follow is not the right strategy or plan. There was a lot of chopping and changing, which was very evident. That could have been in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the home series against New Zealand and now against South Africa,” Tiwary said.

“Absolutely. There is no question about it. (whether India should have a separate red-ball coach). It’s high time they take this decision to save Indian Test cricket. That’s the bottom line,” he concluded.

Notably, India have now lost two test series and won two at home under Gambhir’s stint. He started his test coaching stint in tests with a 2-0 win against Bangladesh and then faced a 3-0 whitewash against New Zealand after that. In Australia, India lost the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2024-25 by a margin of 3-1 but drew the five-match series in England by 2-2. Then, at home, they beat West Indies before losing to South Africa.

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