“Trolling a 23-year-old kid for YouTube views is shameful” - Gautam Gambhir lashes out at social media trolls for criticizing Harshit Rana

The Indian Gautam Gambhir has slammed the former Indian cricketer Kris Srikkanth, who went on to heavily criticize Harshit Rana on his YouTube channel for being a yes-man to the head coach.

Speaking in the post-match press conference, Gambhir has come out in strong support of the 23-year-old pacer Harshit, stating that he has played cricket on his own merit, and his father isn’t a selector. 

Harshit Rana has played two Tests, five ODIs, and three T20Is, and he was most recently part of the Asia Cup 2025 campaign that India successfully won after defeating Pakistan in the grand finale.

"It's shameful that someone wanting to run his YouTube channel is targeting a 23-year-old. If you want to target me, do it. I can handle it, but trolling a 23-year-old kid for YouTube views is shameful," said Gambhir in the press conference.

"His (Rana's) father is not a selector. He has played cricket on his own merit. Don't target these young boys," he added.

Most recently, Srikkanth had asserted on his YouTube channel that Rana has been a yes man to Gambhir, which was the reason behind his constant selection in the Indian team across formats, which didn’t go down well with Gambhir.

"There is only one member, Harshit Rana...nobody knows why he is there in the team. Best is to be like Harshit Rana and be a constant yes man to Gambhir to be selected (in the side)," Srikkanth had said on his YouTube channel recently. 

India’s ODI squad: Shubman Gill (Captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (VC), Axar Patel, KL Rahul (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Dhruv Jurel (WK), Yashasvi Jaiswal.

India’s T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.

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