Srinagar: Former India batter turned expert Gautam Gambhir has reignited the hero worship debate around Indian cricket by asking fans to follow team and not individuals.
Gambhir spoke on the topic during his discussion on the India versus Pakistan match with Zee. Gambhir explained his point by comparing on Suryakumar Yadav with some of the top cricketers in the India side including Kohli.
“Talk about Indian cricket. We should all be talking about the Indian team. We should stop hero worship. It shouldn’t be there at all, but it’s still prevalent because media transform these players into brands. Suryakumar Yadav’s performance, in the last one year, has been better than all those six batters. But you did not ask me a single question about him. It is because he does not have as many followers on social media compared to other players. Even you first took the name of Virat Kohli, not Suryakumar. May be, Rohit Sharma would be next, then KL Rahul. But based on performance, Suryakumar, and Hardik Pandya has been the best in the Indian team,” he said.
Gambhir concluded his point by opining that ‘hero worship’ has been the primary reason behind India’s ICC trophy drought.
“When the Indian team leaves for World Cup, then we should all stop this hero worship. Worship the team. In fact, this has been the main reason why India have not been able to win any ICC trophies between 2011 and 2022,” he added.
