Tamil Nadu coach Sulakshan Kulkarni has been criticised for blaming the captain’s toss decision in the aftermath of the team’s thumping loss to Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy 2024 semi-final.

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At the end of the innings defeat in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, coach Kulkarni was scathing in his assessment of captain Sai Kishore, blaming his decision to bat first on a green top as the reason for the team’s defeat inside three days.

“I always speak straightforward – we lost the match at 9 o’clock on day one,” Kulkarni told reporters. “The moment I saw the wicket I exactly knew what we were going to get.

“Everything was set, we won the toss, as a coach, as a Mumbaikar, I know the conditions well,” said Kulkarni, who played first-class for Mumbai in the 1990s. “We should have bowled but the captain had some different instinct.”

After winning the toss, captain Sai Kishore opted to bat first, contrary to conventional wisdom that green surfaces suit seam bowlers on the first morning. Speaking at the toss, Kishore said: “Had a look at the wicket. Didn’t know much, so thought we’ll bat first”.

There was collective confusion in the aftermath of Kishore’s comments. On social media, India seamer Jaydev Unadkat, among others, questioned the call.

Coach Kulkarni said that the team was “mentally prepared” that winning the toss would mean bowling first.

“When I saw that they had played on a different pitch in the quarter-final and what wicket they gave, I realised that this is a seaming-friendly wicket and it was going to be a very tough match, and we would have to play really well to win this game,” Kulkarni said. “Ultimately he [Sai Kishore] is the boss. I can give my feedback and inputs (on) the kind of wickets and Mumbai’s mindset.

“We were mentally prepared that whoever wins the toss would bowl first. We knew that we would bowl first. The moment they [on TV] heard we would bat first, whatever you say [tough batting early on], it goes in the batsmen’s minds. That first half an hour [before the match started] got in the batsmen’s minds.

“When you get into the first over, where the third [fourth] ball, your international player gets out and you see the situation… in the first hour, it’s difficult. We lost the plot in the first hour, it’s very difficult to come back from there.”

Not many were impressed by Kulkarni’s comments, pinning the loss on the 27-year-old captain’s decision at the toss.

Former Tamil Nadu captain Dinesh Karthik called out the coach for not backing the captain, and instead throwing him under the bus.

“This is soo WRONG,” Karthik wrote on social media. “This is so disappointing from the coach ..instead of backing the captain who has brought the team to the semis after 7 yrs and thinking it’s a start for good things to happen, the coach has absolutely thrown his captain and team under the bus”.

Hemang Badani, another former Tamil Nadu captain, echoed Karthik’s thoughts on social media.

“Oh boy the coach Sulakshan Kulkarni has thrown the captain Sai Kishore under the bus,” Badani wrote. “Whatever happens in a team environment stays there and you don’t set the captain on fire and go public about this. Good coaches don’t do that.”

Former Mumbai cricketer and administrator Shishir Hattangadi, too, questioned why the coach was dissociating himself from the team after their defeat.

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