Former Indian cricketer S. Sreesanth has launched a scathing attack on senior Indian men's team head coach Gautam Gambhir. Sreesanth believes that India would benefit more if it had a mentor in the mould of MS Dhoni instead of having a traditional coach. The pacer also raised questions of India's poor performance in Test cricket under Gambhir highlighting India's home series losses against New Zealand and South Africa in the last few years.
"Change the coach, friend. India needs a mentor, not a coach," Sreesanth said in an interview to Lallantop.
"You have to be a brother first. You can't just laugh when you win and get angry when you lose. You've done well for the country, that's great. That doesn't mean others aren't trying. Have a mentor over a coach," he added.
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The 43-year-old said that Gambhir puts "excessive pressure on the players" and even used MS Dhoni as example. He said that an international side does not need a coach who puts pressure on the players - something that Dhoni "didn't do".
He also said that the team was driven by Dhoni's mentality before suggesting that "team India needs a mentor like Dhoni".
Sreesanth was part of India's squads that won the 2007 T20 World Cup and the 2011 ODI World Cup under Dhoni's captaincy.
The former cricketer also rejected the idea that India's victory in the T20 World Cup earlier this year was solely due to Gambhir. He instead credited the team's success to opener Sanju Samson, who was the Player of the Tournament and former skipper Suryakumar Yadav.
"When the team won the World Cup, all the credit went to Gambhir. But if Sanju Samson hadn't been there, Suryakumar Yadav hadn't captained, and the bowling changes hadn't been made at the right time, would we have won the match?" Sreesanth asked.
"Was the coach making decisions on the field? It's fine if we have a coach like Ashish Nehra, who remains involved," he added.
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