To think that Hardik Pandya wasn’t named Rohit Sharma’s successor is something many are still coming to terms with. The all-rounder who played a major role in India lifting the 2024 T20 World Cup trophy was shockingly ignored by the new coach and selection committee when it came to appointing India’s new T20 captain. Instead, they went with someone who has a grand total experience of 24 matches as their captain in Suryakumar Yadav.
Hardik Pandya unjustly treated
India’s former batting coach, Sanjay Bangar, is also a little baffled by the choice. Although he wishes Suryakumar all the luck, he feels like ‘injustice’ was done to Hardik Pandya.
“It’s not that Suryakumar Yadav has played less domestic cricket before playing international cricket. So he has a lot of experience; I think he has led Mumbai in domestic cricket as well and knows how to extract the best from the players. So there is nothing wrong with Suryakumar being made captain. I fully believe that he will do a good job, but I still feel a little injustice has been meted out to Hardik,” Bangar said on Star Sports’ show ‘Follow the Blues’.
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Where’s the pecking order now?
The former batting coach was especially concerned with breaking the set pecking order. For the last few years, we’ve seen the Indian management pick players who were next in line before those who made names for themselves all of a sudden. However, when it came to Hardik Pandya, that hasn’t been followed.
“I am a bit surprised as far as Hardik not being the captain of the T20 team is concerned because even before the previous T20 World Cup, it seemed like if Rohit hadn’t become the captain and Hardik hadn’t gotten injured at that time, Hardik only would have become the captain.”
“The Indian team had started going in that direction. The selectors had also found that path. I find this sudden U-turn slightly troubling. We have certainly read that the chairman of the selection committee and the coach have spoken to Hardik Pandya,” the former batting coach said.
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