IND vs AUS: Gautam Gambhir alleged of unreasonable support to these 2 Indian players

India head coach Gautam Gambhir has been alleged for the unreasonable support to two young fast bowlers by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Those young fast bowlers are Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna.

Both Rana and Krishna are in India's squad for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 against Australia. Both of them have not played much of first-class cricket but were still selected ahead of the more seasoned campaigner Mukesh Kumar.

Mukesh is an experienced red-ball cricketer and has been a leading bowler in Bengal's attack over the years in first-class cricket. Currently, he is playing the unofficial Test series between Australia and India A, where he is the leading wicket-taker so far.

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BCCI alleges Gautam Gambhir for unreasonable support to Harshit Rana and Prasidh Krishna

According to TOI, Gautam Gambhir wanted to have Harshit Rana in the Test team at any cost. Rana has played just 10 first-class matches so far and picked up 43 wickets at an average of 24. He was also in India's squad for India's third Test against New Zealand at Mumbai.

Harshit Rana has previously worked with Gautam Gambhir in the Kolkata Knight Riders set-up during the IPL 2024 season. Gambhir was the team's mentor that season while Rana produced his best IPL performance and helped KKR clinch the title.

Gautam Gambhir has been impressed with the way Harshit Rana has evolved in his career. He is young and has that aggression to bowl attacking lines and lengths in Australian conditions.

Paras Mhambrey speaks on Prasidh Krishna's strengths

Meanwhile, Prasidh Krishna was seen as a future fast bowler for India in Test cricket during Rahul Dravid's tenure as the head coach. Krishna is tall and has the ability to bowl at a high pace while generating a good amount of bounce.

Former India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey spoke about Prasidh Krishna's strengths and how he can be useful even when the conditions are not great for bowling.

"Prasidh's ability to generate bounce from a fuller length is his USP. When he is on song, he is very tough to play. The Kookaburra ball flattens out by the 35th over. That's when you need someone to hold an end and someone to do something extra like Bumrah does," Mhambrey was quoted as saying by TOI.

Debate on Navdeep Saini's inclusion

Apart from these two bowlers, there was also debate about the place of Navdeep Saini in the reserves list for this tour. Saini has been on the fringes of the Indian team selection over the years but fitness and poor economy rate have worked against his favor.

But Gautam Gambhir was adamant on having Saini as a reserve player. Saini is currently playing the unofficial Test series against Australia A but has not looked at his best. He had a great time in the Duleep Trophy where he picked up 14 wickets in three Tests at an average of 25.42.

Navdeep Saini made his Test debut during the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy played in Australia during 2020-21. Interestingly, his last Test match also came in that series in the famous Gabba Test where he got injured midway through the Test match.