One of the biggest headlines in recent times is the selection of Suryakumar Yadav as the T20I captain of the Indian Cricket Team. Hardik Pandya was salted to be the captain, but recent reports claim that chief of the BCCI Selection Committee Ajit Agarkar was unconvinced of Pandya’s captaincy. Despite success with Gujarat Titans, Hardik’s leadership skills have come under the scanner with his latest Mumbai Indians stint.
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In the recently concluded ICC T20 World Cup, Hardik Pandya served as the deputy to Rohit Sharma. But after Rohit retired, it was assumed that Pandya would take over the reins of Team India. But both Ajit Agarkar and Gautam Gambhir were not happy with Pandya’s leadership capabilities.
Instead they were happy with SKY. Reports believe that Suryakumar Yadav’s influence over the team and the dressing room was better than Hardik Pandya.
Agarkar & Gambhir not convinced with Pandya
As per recent reports the duo of Agarkar and Gambhir believes that Pandya still lacks the edge to make the cut. Pandya served as the captain of Gujarat Titans back in IPL 2022 and 2023 where he reached the finals on both occasions. Hardik won the title in 2022 and lost out to MS Dhoni’s CSK in 2023.
But in 2024, things turned when he joined Mumbai Indians as the skipper. MI had a torrid time with Hardik’s captaincy abilities coming into the grand scheme of things. Furthermore, Hardik wanted a break from the IND vs SL ODI series citing personal reasons.
Now, as things stand, young Shubman Gill is the deputy in both ODIs and T20Is. And thus it remains to be seen as to whether Pandya will be the captain in the near future.