Ex-India spinner Harbhajan Singh spoke of his exasperation at the poor decision to omit Hardik Pandya from being named T20I team captain. Hardik had been expected to step in as captain for Rohit after the latter’s retirement from the format. He was the Vice Captain of the Indian team which won the T20 World cup in June. However, the BCCI put out a shocker by promoting Suryakumar Yadav to the captaincy instead. In a recent conversation, it was quite inappropriate to leave Hardik out of the captaincy equation.
“Surprised, I was. To a certain degree, I was unhappy. He was your vice-captain…when Rohit Sharma cannot perform his duties, the vice-captain assumes the role of captain. But to make excuses and tell him you are not playing T20 but two months later, there are only T20s the whole year,’ Harbhajan told Sports Yaari.
Mr.Harbhajan did not forget to point out how disappointing it must be for him to lose the captaincy.
“He came after winning the T20 World Cup and suddenly, it’s a big blow for him. It’s not fair. I really appreciate Suryakumar Yadav. Such a fantastic cricketer, such a wonderful person…very generous. Even he wouldn’t have expected this to happen,” he concluded.
The other two wicketkeeper-batters in the team are Sanju Samson and Jitesh Sharma. Young left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma is back into the side after his omission for the Sri Lanka T20 Is. Following him will be Riyan Parag and Nitish Kumar Reddy.
Apart from them, Injured Hardik Pandya, Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube have been included in the squad as the all-rounders.
The team has chosen Ravi Bishnoi and Varun Chakaravarthy as the spinners while Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, and Mayank Yadav have been included in the side as fast bowlers.
The BCCI announced a 15-member squad headed by Suryakumar for the series against Bangladesh last week. The three matches will be held on October 6 (Gwalior), Oct 9 (New Delhi) and Oct 12 (Hyderabad).
Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Rinku Singh, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Mayank Yadav
