IND vs SA LIVE – Hardik Pandya Batting Position? Team India head coach Rahul Dravid has suggested that Hardik Pandya might not play in the top five. Hardik who led Gujarat Titans (GT) to IPL glory was seen playing No.4 to perfection in just concluded season. But Dravid has clearly dropped a hint he may not be playing in TOP 5 of Indian batting line-up: Follow India vs South Africa T20 Series LIVE Updates and Scores on InsideSport.IN.
“Without giving too much away – I’m not going to be telling the batting order before the game starts – but in general, sometimes the role that you play for your franchise matches with the role that you play for India, but sometimes you have to play slightly different roles for different teams”, Rahul Dravid was quoted during the PRESS CONFERENCE
- Hardik batted at No.4 for GT in the entire IPL 2022 campaign
- The GT skipper is set to make his comeback to Indian side when they take on South Africa in the first T20I on Thursday
- Hardik is expected to bat at No.6 for Team India.
IND vs SA LIVE: Hardik Pandya not to bat for India in TOP 5? Rahul Dravid says ‘Role for IPL franchises and team India different’
#TeamIndia Head Coach, Rahul Dravid is excited to have someone of @hardikpandya7‘s quality in the side. 👍 👍#INDvSA | @Paytm pic.twitter.com/dszAELbKwy
— BCCI (@BCCI) June 7, 2022
Dravid addresses Press – Ahead of the five-match T20I series Rahul Dravid addressed the press and said, “Hardik is a fantastic cricketer with both bat and ball – we have seen that for India in the past obviously.
“He has been very successful in white-ball cricket and has shown some really good form in this IPL as well. So it’s very pleasing to have someone of that quality that we can choose from,” Dravid added.
Dravid Keeps suspense on the Team News –
Although Hardik is expected to be back, Dravid was not willing to reveal the team news and said, “Without giving too much away – I’m not going to be telling the batting order before the game starts – but in general, sometimes the role that you play for your franchise matches with the role that you play for India, but sometimes you have to play slightly different roles for different teams.
“And it’s not only about Hardik. For all the players, some of the roles they played for their IPL franchises might be slightly different to the roles that we are expecting here based on our team combination.”
Hardik batting at No.6?-
- While Hardik was auditioning at No.4 in IPL 2022, Dinesh Karthik was seen in stellar form batting at No.6 for Royal Challengers Bangalore (GT) in the IPL 2022.
- Hardik is expected to play his usual role for the side while coming down the batting line-up, which he also performed for Mumbai Indians.
- With more than 400 runs in the IPL and ranked in the top 10 for most runs in the IPL 2022, Hardik will have to quickly adapt to the old role, while
IND vs SA LIVE: Hardik Pandya not to bat for India in TOP 5? Rahul Dravid says ‘Role for IPL franchises and team India different’
Hardik to continue impressing after successful IPL 2022-
Change in role or not, the GT captain will try to make a mark when he returns back to the fold, Hardik Pandya is likely to be back in the finisher’s role for India despite having a lot of success at No. 3 and 4 for Gujarat Titans at IPL 2022.
Hardik was the leading scorer for Titans with 487 runs at an average of 44.27 and a strike rate of 131.26, but according to India’s head coach Rahul Dravid, it’s not necessary that he will bat in the position for the national team.
India squad: KL Rahul (C), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (vice-captain, wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik.
IND vs SA LIVE: Hardik Pandya not to bat for India in TOP 5? Rahul Dravid says ‘Role for IPL franchises and team India different’
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