Harmanpreet Kaur was at the receiving end of criticism from several in the cricket fraternity for dropping the veteran Mithali Raj from the semi-final of ICC Women's World T20 against England on Thursday (November 22).
Mithali had batted twice in the tournament and returned scores of 56 and 51. Her experience might have been useful on a slow pitch in Antigua, where India crumbled to 112 all out and eventually lost the contest by 8 wickets with 17 balls to spare.
Amidst the scrutiny, Mithali's manager Annisha Gupta launched a scathing attack on Kaur, calling the latter a "manipulative, lying, cheat" on social media. Although Gupta removed her tweets soon after posting them, she didn’t entirely regret putting them out in the open. The manager also said the "favouritism" shown by the Indian team was very apparent and hinted Mithali was a victim of "unfair treatment".
Annisha Gupta’s remarks, however, hasn’t gone down too well with former India opener turned commentator Aakash Chopra.
Taking to Twitter, Chopra wrote: “You don’t call the Indian captain ‘manipulative, lying and undeserving’ unless you can prove your allegations. Especially when you’re representing another player from the same team. In very very bad taste.”
You don’t call the Indian captain ‘manipulative, lying and undeserving’ unless you can prove your allegations. Especially when you’re representing another player from the same team. In very very bad taste. ???? https://t.co/V2Sz33xTwb
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 24, 2018
Later, Annisha Gupta released a statement, asserting that she doesn’t have any official designation of work with Mithali and is a freelance sports consultant.
Even then, Aakash Chopra lambasted Gupta and told Harmanpreet to file a defamation case against her.
“Bad attempt. Calling someone a Liar and Being Manipulative by watching games on telly??? This consultant needs good counselling, it seems. Would be a pity if Indian Captain doesn’t file a defamation case....,” Chopra tweeted.
Bad attempt. Calling someone a Liar and Being Manipulative by watching games on telly??? This consultant needs good counselling, it seems. Would be a pity if Indian Captain doesn’t file a defamation case.... https://t.co/2w5e5R21WD
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 24, 2018
After the match, Harmanpreet Kaur had said that she had no regrets over the decision to drop Mithali for the tie against the 50-over world champions.
"Whatever we had decided, we decided for the team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but no regrets," Harmanpreet told reporters after the match.
"Sometimes you have to change your game according to the wicket. England bowled well, they read the wicket really well. Credit goes to them, we've learned a lot from this game. It was not an easy total to chase, and our bowlers bowled really well to stretch the match till the 18th over," she added.
