Vaughan said the Indian head coach will have to learn to “play the game” in the media.
India head coach Gautam Gambhir has come under the scanner for his fiery response to Australian legend Ricky Ponting’s comments on the decline of star batter Virat Kohli.
Commenting on Kohli’s extended lean patch, Ponting had suggested that any other player with only two centuries in five years would not have survived in the team.
However, Gambhir termed Ponting's opinions on Indian cricket irrelevant, before asking the former Australian skipper to focus on Australian players.
“What does Ponting have to do with Indian cricket? He should think about Australian cricket. I don't have any concerns. They (Kohli and Rohit) are incredibly tough men; they've achieved a lot for Indian cricket and are going to achieve a lot in future as well," Gambhir had said during an interaction with media before leaving for Australia.
Gambhir's remarks weren't received well by the Australian cricket fraternity and now former England captain Michael Vaughan has weighed in on the same.
Vaughan said Gambhir will have to learn to “play the game” in the media now that he is in a leadership position in the Indian team.
“I am going to like Gautam Gambhir as coach because he is spicy. I think he is going to have to learn that sometimes, in the leadership position that he is in, play the game a little bit,” said Vaughan on the Club Prairie Fire podcast, also featuring Australia greats Matthew Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.
"Don't just buy every comment. Because, by the way, we are all going to be commenting about his team very shortly. And I never thought that the rule of punditry is that you can only have a comment on the team that you played for. If that is the rule of punditry well, Haydos you have spent half your life in India so that's your job. I have got to get on a plane and go back to Manchester tomorrow morning.
“So I don't quite agree with Gautam. But I do like a bit of spice and I like the fact that he is going to be very prickly. Over the course of the next few weeks I don't think it's going to be easy for his team. I don't think they are going to win every game, they are going to lose games and it will be very interesting to see how he deals with that negative side of team performance,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Ricky Ponting himself has responded to Gautam Gambhir’s comments by calling the Indian coach "prickly character".
“I was surprised to read the reaction but knowing the coach, Gautam Gambhir ... he’s quite a prickly character, so I’m not surprised it was him who said something back," Ponting told 7News.
The Australian great also clarified that his intentions were not to demean Virat Kohli by any means. "In no way was it a dig at him (Kohli). I actually followed it up by saying he’s played well in Australia and he’ll be keen to bounce back over here...If you ask Virat, I'm sure he would be a little bit concerned that he hasn't been able to make the same amount of hundreds as he has in previous years," Ponting said.
"So it's amazing how little things can get cut up, but he's a class player and he's played well in Australia in the past."