Gautam Gambhir has finally reacted after his exclusion from India’s Champions Trophy squad. Gambhir’s exclusion from Champions Trophy has left his fans fuming. Kolkata Knight Riders Skipper Gautam Gambhir has been in prolific form in the tenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Despite his wonderful form in the domestic circuit and the ongoing IPL, Gambhir was left out as selectors went for tried and tested opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan. As the BCCI has shown keen in calling Rishab Pant, Sanju Samson, and Akshar Patel from the younger lot, Gambhir continued his performance as other members of the Indian Cricket Team struggled to find their form in IPL 2017.

The pioneer of India’s both World Cup victories in 2007 and 2011, Gambhir hasn’t quite enjoyed the latter half of his career as is still struggling to find a spot in the team. But Gambhir has never complained and has let his bat do the talking. He was rewarded for his impressive performances last year as he was included in the Test squad for the New Zealand.

But he couldn’t retain his spot after below par performances but the southpaw came back strongly with a series of impressive performances in the IPL. He has so far scored 425 runs in 12 matches at an impressive average of a shade over 47.

Fan severely criticized the Indian board for not picking Gambhir into the CT17. The hashtag #bringbackgambhir was also seen trending on Twitter. Gambhir was cited to be a valuable option up the order but he yet again he was left out. Given his experience up the order and performing in crunch situations, Gambhir would have been a good choice but Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane was preferred ahead of him.

While his supporters expressed their disappointment soon after the squad was announced, Gambhir retweeted a tweet from the late Muhammad Ali’s account which read,

“I am grateful for all my victories, but I am especially grateful for my losses because they only made me work harder.” #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/bAHdX9DmtN

— Muhammad Ali (@MuhammadAli) May 8, 2017

Given the amount of hard work he puts in, Gambhir might get into the squad sooner than later. The southpaw has seen innumerable highs and severe lows and his retweets are synonymous to his cricketing life.

“The moment I start thinking about me scoring runs to be part of the Champions Trophy team, it would be a very, very selfish thing to do. And being a leader you can’t do that. If I start thinking along those lines, there may be so many other guys in the [KKR] team who would be thinking of being in the Champions Trophy squad too and they would be thinking about their own individual performances then. That’s not right. You should always stay in the present. Rest of the things are byproducts – if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it is fine. Ultimately I don’t play to get selected, I play to win a game of cricket,” Gambhir told.

The left-hander, who last played an ODI for India way back in 2013, also added that a batsman’s performance in T20Is should not be considered while picking a team for the 50-over format.

“T20 runs should only be a criterion to get selected for a T20 side. The moment you start picking players in the one-day format by their T20 performance, then you are giving your domestic 50-over competitions absolutely no relevance,” he said.

What do you say about Gambhir’s exclusion from Champions Trophy 2017 team? Share your views with us in the comments section below.