Former Indian cricketer Irfan Pathan on Saturday slammed the BCCI for giving Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya the leeway to ‘pick-and-choose’. Pathan urged the BCCI and the selectors not to place so much importance on Pandya.
Injuries galore
Pandya has been hugely inconsistent in the last one year. After injuring his ankle during the ODI World Cup against Bangladesh, Pandya missed out on a number of series. He has made his return to cricket with IPL 2024, but has not been anywhere near his top form.
Pandya in IPL 2024
Hardik Pandya is leading the Mumbai Indians in IPL 2024 but has not been able to lead by example so far. Pandya has scored just 151 runs in 8 matches so far at an average of just over 21. His bowling has been worse, conceding almost 11 runs an over and taking just 4 wickets in 8 matches.
Latest News on Hardik Pandya
Pathan not happy with Pandya
Irfan Pathan, in a chat with Star Sports Press Room Show, bashed the BCCI for giving too much importance to Pandya.
“What I feel about Hardik Pandya is that Indian cricket needs to make it clear that they should not give him that much priority as they have given him so far, because we still haven’t won the world cup. And if you think you are a primary all-rounder, you need to make that kind of an impact at the international level. As far as the all-rounder is concerned he hasn’t made that impact at the international level, we are only thinking about the potential. We are getting confused between the IPL performances and the international performances. That’s a big difference,” Pathan said.
“First of all he needs to play throughout the full year. He cannot pick and choose. Indian cricket needs to stop doing that. Stop giving preferences to individuals, if you do that, you will not be winning major tournaments. What Australia has been doing for many years is that they are actually preferring the team game. Making everyone a superstar. Not one superstar, everybody is a superstar in the squad. If you don’t do that, you will not win big tournaments,” Pathan added.
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