Former Indian all-rounder Sanjay Bangar feels a little injustice has been meted out to Hardik Pandya as he was not appointed India’s captain for the T20I series vs Sri Lanka. Pandya was expected to take over the T20I captaincy baton from Rohit Sharma but the selectors and new team management backed Suryakumar Yadav for the leadership role.
Pandya was ignored for the captaincy role because of his fitness concerns and workload management issues.
Suryakumar led India in seven T20Is in 2023 against South Africa and Australia and the team won five games. On the other hand, Hardik Pandya has more captaincy experience than SKY, having led India in three ODIs and 16 T20Is.
Furthermore, Pandya has the experience of leading Gujarat Titans to glory in IPL 2022 and also the tournament’s final in the following season.
Sanjay Bangar said on Star Sports show Follow the Blues, “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 in Suryakumar being made the captain. I fully believe that he will do a good job but I still feel a little injustice has been meted out to Hardik,” the former India batting coach added.
Bangar shared his surprise that Pandya was denied the captaincy role despite leading more than SKY in T20Is.
“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,” he reasoned in the same discussion.
“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,” Bangar said.
India will play the first T20I against Sri Lanka at Pallekele on July 27.
