Since the end of the last T20 WC, Hardik Pandya has been leading the Indian Team in the format with Rohit Sharma given a rest from T20Is. Now with the next edition of the T20 WC not far away India is looking in a lot of uncertainty. A lot of questions are to be answered regarding the set-up of the team and the captaincy. Who is going to lead India in the WC? Is still a question mark with Rohit not playing the T20I series against SA.
Rise of Hardik Pandya as Captain
Until the IPL 2022, Hardik never looked like a captaincy option and the likes of KL, Pant, and Bumrah were considered as possible options. But the IPL 2022 has brought many changes in the Hardik was looked at as he led the Gujarat Titans to their maiden IPL trophy in their first season itself. This earned him the Vice captaincy of the Indian team in the T20 WC and also Captaincy after that. He took his opportunity well and led India to several series victories, with the T20I series in West Indies this year being the only series he lost as Indian captain.
But several aspects of Hardik’s captaincy are very questionable. Hardik tends to take all the responsibility upon himself while he is the captain, he likes to take the new ball and prefers batting up in the order, whether he played for the Gujarat Titans or the National Team. Now, with Rohit Sharma most likely to return to the Indian team what is going to be his role in the team for the T20 WC? With a lot of things going around and Hardik still recovering from the injury, he might find himself at a place where IPL could only be the game time he is going to get.
No backups for Hardik Pandya
The problem everyone embarks upon but still nothing is done to sort it should be the backup of Hardik Pandya. India has been looking for a backup for Hardik for a long time. Different players were tried for that position like Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, and Venkatesh Iyer. Even Shardul and Deepak Chahar were considered to become sort of all-rounders, but none of them worked. They didn’t perform well in the limited opportunities they got and were sidelined as soon as Hardik became available.
The importance of Hardik in the Indian team was on display even in the recently concluded ODI WC how the dynamics of the playing 11 change once he becomes unavailable. The question that is in many people’s heads is why India is not trying to groom any all-rounders. The Australian series could have been a golden opportunity to try different options but still, India chose to stick to its older formula playing with 7 batsmen and just 5 bowlers.
The most surprising thing this not giving opportunities for players like Washington and Dube who warmed the bench throughout the series, they didn’t even try to use part-timers Tilak or Jaiswal. If this is going to repeat, India will still be looking for Hardik’s replacement in the year 2030. Hope the India management looks into this and finds a suitable solution soon.