Former Indian cricketer turned commentator Aakash Chopra has come in defence of under-fire women’s T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. Chopra also slammed former Indian skipper Mithali Raj’s manager Annisha Gupta for calling captain Harmanpreet Kaur ‘manipulative’.

“You don’t call the Indian captain ‘manipulative, lying and undeserving’ unless you can prove your allegations. Especially when you’re representing another player from the same team. In very very bad taste,” Aakash Chopra wrote on Twitter from his official handle.

You don’t call the Indian captain ‘manipulative, lying and undeserving’ unless you can prove your allegations. Especially when you’re representing another player from the same team. In very very bad taste. 😑 https://t.co/V2Sz33xTwb

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) November 24, 2018

Harmanpreet Kaur has come under heavy criticism following India’s defeat in ICC Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final on Friday for benching Mithali Raj.

In the absence of Mithali Raj, Indian team suffered an embarrassing eight-wicket loss by England and in the process was knocked out by T20 World Cup. Kaur’s decision to bench Mithali Raj from a do or die clash was also questioned by Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar.

Despite the defeat, Harmanpreet Kaur has defended team management’s decision to bench Mithali Raj and said she had “no regrets” for leaving Mithali out of the playing XI at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium at North Sound in Antigua.

However, Harmanpreet Kaur’s response did not go down well with Mithali Raj’s manager Annisha Gupta. Mithali’s manager was so upset with Harmapreet’s response that she called Indian skipper a “manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain”.

Gupta even said the women’s team believed in “politics not sport”. “Unfortunately @BCCIWomen believes in politics not sport. After witnessing what @M_Raj03 ‘s experience could do in IndvIre it’s shocking that they went with what pleases @ImHarmanpreet -a manipulative, lying, immature, undeserving captain,” Annisha’s wrote on Twitter.

Though Annisha later deleted her unverified Twitter handle, she took ownership of the tweets. Mithali’s manager also defended her criticism by saying it came “from the right place”.

“I’d like to say that I don’t know what is going on the inside but, now that the matches are being telecast, we can see who is performing and who is not,” Annisha Gupta told ESPNcricinfo.