3 times rumors of a rift in the Indian cricket team's dressing room made headlines ft. BGT 2024-25

Indian cricket team is one of the most-followed sports teams in the world. The Men in Blue have millions of fans across the globe, and it goes without saying that almost every fan wants to know each and every detail about Indian cricketers.

While the team is united on a majority of occasions, sometimes, there have been rumors of rifts between the team members. Generally, the rift involves the captain or the coach.

In this listicle now, we will look at the three times rumors of a rift in the Indian dressing room became the talk of the town.

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#1 "Mr. Fix It" in BGT 2024-25

On the first day of 2025, Indian Express dropped a bombshell by reporting that there was a rift in the Indian dressing room, where an unnamed senior player harbored a desire to become the team's interim skipper.

Rohit Sharma was the captain in the fourth Test, where India lost against Australia. Soon after the defeat, the aforementioned report claimed that a certain player was portraying himself as 'Mr. Fix It and trying to become the team's captain. Interestingly, Rohit did not make it to the playing XI for the fifth Test, with vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah coming out for the toss instead.

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#2 Team Virat vs Team Rohit after 2019 World Cup

India lost in the semifinals of the 2019 ODI World Cup. Virat Kohli was the team's captain, while Rohit Sharma was the deputy skipper. After the defeat, reports surfaced claiming that the Indian dressing room was divided into two groups, one backing Virat and the other supporting Rohit.

Former Team India fielding coach R Sridhar shed some light on the rumors in his book 'Coaching Beyond: My Days with the Indian Cricket Team'.

Here's what Sridhar wrote:

"There was a Rohit camp and a Virat camp. and head coach Ravi Shastri had to personally intervene to resolve the issue. We were informed that there was a Rohit camp and a Virat camp, that someone had unfollowed another on social media - stuff that could be unsettling if you allowed it to fester."

Sridhar further revealed that when Team India landed in the United States for the next series after the 2019 World Cup, coach Ravi Shastri called Virat and Rohit to his room and made it clear that they needed to be on the same page for the team's betterment.

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#3 Sourav Ganguly vs Greg Chappell

This is one of the most popular dressing-room feuds in cricket history. In 2005, former Australian cricketer Greg Chappell replaced John Wright as the Indian team's head coach. Just a few months after joining the team, Chappell removed Sourav Ganguly from the captain's position and then dropped him from the team.

Soon after, Chappell's email to the BCCI about the Ganguly problem leaked in the media circles. The cricketers were not happy with the coach's attitude, with Virender Sehwag and Harbhajan Singh referring to him as 'headmaster'.

After sacking Ganguly, Chappell assigned the team's reins to Rahul Dravid. As per Sehwag, Chappell held long meetings with Dravid to discuss the team's strategies and plans.

Under Chappell's coaching, the Indian team lost to Bangladesh in the group stage of the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It resulted in an embarrassing first-round exit from the competition.