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Former Mumbai Indians batter Tirumalasetti Suman has questioned the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and also head coach Gautam Gambhir for skipping the three-match T20I series against Zimbabwe, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday at the Harare Sports Ground, Harare.
The Men in Blue are on this tour with a different support staff, as head coach Gautam Gambhir and his support staff are being rested for the Zimbabwe series, with VVS Laxman replacing Gautam Gambhir, the former is currently the Head of Cricket at the BCCI Centre of Excellence (COE) in Bengaluru, taking charge, along with Sunil Joshi and Hrishikesh Kanitkar, who will be the bowling and batting coaches, respectively.
Tirumalasetti Suman slams Gautam Gambhir for taking rest in Zimbabwe series
While speaking on his YouTube channel, Tirumalasetti Suman slammed Gautam Gambhir and said India’s coaching staff should not have taken rest in this series and should have continued, given the kind of form that the team has been in recent times, and also during the IPL, Gautam Gambhir and the other India team coaching staff got rest for nearly two months.
"For this series, India have an entirely new support staff. This is quite surprising because the same thing should continue for all the white-ball series. This is strange. These coaches (Gambhir and Co.) were not part of any IPL team and had a two-and-a-half-month gap."
"They played only ten matches after the IPL. Why do you need rest? After this, there is a gap till the Sri Lanka series again. So this is a big question mark," he said in a video on his YouTube channel.
"India's run has been concerning"- Tirumalasetti Suman on India's current T20I form
Speaking about India’s recent T20I form, Suman stated that the Men in Blue side is playing the second team in this tour, but in the Ireland and England tours they played almost the full-strength squad, which they lost 2-0 and 4-0 respectively, and thus the morale of the team is also down after the poor performance.
Citing that Zimbabwe had a contrasting form as they won the series against Bangladesh and played amazingly in that white-ball series, and have been in good form, and their squad is also good to compete against India.
"India's run has been concerning. Now they are playing a second-string side, but the full-strength team played against Ireland and England. Shreyas is still looking for his first win, morale is slightly down, and confidence is also low. On the other hand, despite the T20I series loss against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe have had a good run in the last month and a half. Their squad is also decent."
"Zimbabwe cannot be taken lightly"- Tirumalasetti Suman warns India over Zimbabwe
Suman also warns India not to take the Chevrons lightly as the Men in Blue have an inexperienced side with the likes of Ashok Sharma, Prince Yadav, and Mayank Yadav. The bowling attack is relatively inexperienced, with Prince playing the most matches among them.
"Zimbabwe cannot be taken lightly, as we saw what they did in the T20 World Cup. It is also India's second-string team. We are looking at some new faces here. Except Prince Yadav, all the other pacers have an economy of 11 or more. Prince was also recently dropped and he has also gone for runs. So clearly, it is an inexperienced bowling attack," he said.
