SACHIN Tendulkar should not be allowed to pursue his dream of scoring his 100th century on this tour, according to outspoken opener Gautam Gambhir

In comments sure to splinter the Indian dressing room, Gambhir said the tourists needed players who could "deliver''.



Tendulkar has not scored a century in his 11 innings on this Australian tour and was rested before Sunday's game against Australia, which the tourists won.



"For me, this was the best playing 11,'' Gambhir said before pointedly adding "it's not about names''.



"You don't want names, you want people who can deliver,'' Ghambir, who was named man-of-the-match after top scoring with 92, said.



"The best XI is if 11 players have the belief they can beat any opposition on the park and this playing XI had the belief that they could beat Australia in Australia and in this ODI.



"One or two individuals don't make a difference.''



Not content with tearing down a legend, Gambhir also took aim at captain M.S. Dhoni, saying the skipper should have batted with more urgency.



"We should have finished this game in the 48th over,'' Gambhir said. "We shouldn't have taken the game to the 50th over.



"I know it's always easier to talk when you are in the dressing room, and it's always tough in the middle, but ... when you put yourself in that situation, someone has to pick his hand up and say, 'I want to finish this game'.''



Dhoni scored 13 runs off the final over, finishing with 44 from 58 balls.



"I don't know what was going through MS's mind, but maybe he wanted to delay it, maybe he wanted someone else to take that responsibility,'' Gambhir said.



"Cometh the hour, I think the most important shot of the match was made by him. Six balls, 13 runs, with the kind of shot he played, he has done a fantastic job, he has always been a finisher, but that's his game plan. He wants to delay it.



"Someone like me, if I was there, I wouldn't have taken it to the last over, because I always feel that any runs in the last over is far more pressure than finishing one or two overs before.



"Even if you need five or six runs in the last over, the pressure is far more on the batting side.

"We are different human beings, we think differently, we have different game plans.''



Originally published as Tendulkar 'not in India's best XI'