India’s all-rounder Hardik Pandya saw his world turn upside down quickly as the BCCI announced the squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka. After Rohit Sharma’s retirement from the format, Pandya was expecting to be named as the new T20I captain, especially since Gautam Gambhir, who had a different perspective for things, came in as new head coach. The T20I leadership role was given in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav, whereas the role of vice-captain was given to Shubhman Gill.
A good chunk of reports have came in since the news broke out. Some indicated that Gambhir wanted Suryakumar to take the role, as he was having concerns regarding Pandya’s fitness and consistency. A report also claimed that chief selector Ajit Agarkar was also not convinced by Hardik’s tactical awareness which was require for a successful captaincy.
Gambhir’s entry as the head coach was definitely a tool in Pandya’s national captaincy aspect, but even the selection committee was not completely convinced that he is tactic wise as sound as one will expect an India captain to be.
He needs a bit of support and Ashish Nehra did that at GT. Mark Boucher was not that man at MI and as per normal feedback, the younger one have a better chance of responding way better to Surya than to Pandya.
An awesome performance in Sri Lanka is in the road ahead for Pandya right now. Also, he just can not wait for the India games as he could play domestic cricket to improve his below-average international appearance percentage within last 19 months.
Indian cricket is always filled with twists and turns, and if Pandya wants to go to the Champions Trophy next year, he will have to play Vijay Hazare Trophy for Baroda in December.
