Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra has taken a jibe at Irfan Pathan’s favoritism allegations against MS Dhoni, under whose captaincy he played his last international match.“I asked him. During the 2008 Australia series, Mahi bhai’s statement came out in the media that Irfan was not bowling well. I thought I had bowled well throughout the series, so I went and asked Mahi bhai. Sometimes statements are twisted in the media, so I also wanted to clarify. Mahi bhai said, ‘No, Irfan, there is nothing like this, everything’s going as per plan,'” Pathan had said in an old interview going viral on social media.Pathan had also alleged that those who used to make hookah for MS Dhoni, they used to get picked.Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra has called these charges baseless.“You want to pick your best team. But if you have seen someone more in front of you and playing under pressure, you move towards them, and that is normal. You will see that players from where the coach or captain are would be preferred more. That is not bias, not favoritism. It is just the fact that they have spent more time with them,” said Chopra in a YouTube video posted by Crex.
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“Beyond that, what happens in one room, how many people sit, how many don’t, I don’t think a successful captain worth his salt is going to get influenced by that factor.“At the end, he has to pick a team that can win and players who can take him to that destination. So there is a lot riding on the captain’s shoulders and the stakes are high. I don’t think that if someone does not spend more time with the captain, they would be adversely treated or dropped,” he added.
