Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has echoed Yuvraj Singh’s view that the current Indian team had “a dearth of role models”.

Gambhir compared the current side to the batch he was part of in the 2000s, when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid were prominent members.

“I agree with Yuvraj that there is a dearth of role models in the Indian team currently, like in the 2000s, we had Dravid, Kumble, Laxman, Sourav and Sachin to guide the team,” Gambhir told Star Sports. “It is important to have senior players around you who can help you when you’re going through a rough patch.

“Right now, I don’t think there are enough seniors in the Indian camp, who will set aside their self-interest to help youngsters.”

It was a view first stated by Yuvraj during a recent Instagram live session with Rohit Sharma, who had asked him what the difference was between the teams he was part of in 2007 and 2011, which won the T20 and ODI World Cups, and the current side under Virat Kohli.

“The difference I find between the team of ours and now is during our time, seniors were very disciplined,” he said. “Social media was not there so no distraction also.

“We had to carry ourselves in a certain way. We used to look up to our seniors as how they are behaving, talking to the media and so on. They used to lead the way. I learnt a lot. That is what we learnt from them and tell you guys also.

“In this team, seniors are you (Rohit) and Virat (Kohli) who play all three formats. I just feel since social media has come, there are very few guys to look up to. That sense of respect for seniors … it has become a thin line.”