Shashi Tharoor, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, has been after the young Team India concerning their performance in the ongoing five-T20I series against Zimbabwe in Harare.
India started the series on a poor note, losing the first game by 13 runs after failing to chase 115 runs. This led to a lot of criticism for the Indian team from some quarters, but most of the Team India fans were sympathetic towards the Shubman Gill-led side.
However, Shashi Tharoor decided to take a dig at the Indian team and the BCCI, which is run by secretary Jay Shah, son of BJP leader and Home Minister Amit Shah.
He posted on X: “So even while the echoes of the wild celebrations at Mumbai for India’s #T20WorldCup win have not died down, we have been beaten by minnows Zimbabwe today in Harare. It’s just what @BCCI deserved for taking things for granted. Whether on June 4 or on July 6, arrogance has been brought down a notch. Well played, Zimbabwe! #ZIMvsIND”
He was slammed for his assessment of the young Indian team but decided to pile on his criticism as he said that an Indian team without Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and others is not INDIA, but an India A team.
He posted: “If a team is called INDIA it needs to be worthy of the label. This was at best "India A". If SKY, Pant, Hardik, Kuldeep, Siraj, Bumrah, and Arshdeep, plus Sanju, Jaiswal, Chahal, and Dube, were ALL unavailable this week, the tour should have been postponed. At least half of them should have been there to justify the International status given to these matches. This is what I mean by @BCCI taking success arrogantly for granted. My disappointment is not because we lost but because we did not even show that much self-respect.”
However, Tharoor had to eat his words after India thumped Zimbabwe in the second T20i by 100 runs in Harare thanks to Abhishek Sharma’s brilliant 100 and pacers’ performances.
Tharoor praised Abhishek’s performance with the bat and said: “Congratulations to the young India team that just thrashed Zimbabwe today by 100 runs, especially @IamAbhiSharma4 whose century was the third-fastest ever scored for India in T20Is. Happy they bounced back so quickly from their poor showing yesterday (and glad to be trolled for a happy cause)! #INDvsZIM @BCCI”
However, the fans were not in the mood to let Shashi Tharoor get off so easily and shared their anger on social media platforms for his rant on the Indian team.
Here are some of the posts:
