Former Indian chief selector Kris Srikkanth believes Hardik Pandya should be India’s captain for the 2024 T20 World Cup. India suffered another heartbreaking loss in the World Cup semifinal when England obliterated them by 10 wickets at the Adelaide Oval.
Pandya will lead India in the upcoming three-match T20I series against New Zealand in the absence of Rohit Sharma, who has been rested. The all-rounder had also led India against Ireland in the two-match T20I series.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya had impressed with his leadership skills as he led Gujarat Titans to glory in IPL 2022 while leading for the first time. Pandya had led from the front as he amassed 487 runs while batting in the middle order.
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was not at his best in the recently concluded T20 World Cup as he could not deliver while opening the innings. Rohit is now 35 and many cricket pundits reckon it is time for him to look beyond the shortest format of the game.
“See if I was the Chairman of the selection committee, I would say that Hardik Pandya should be the captain of the 2024 World Cup, straight away, I’d put it that way number one,” Srikkanth said on Star Sports show Match Point.
“And start rebuilding a side right from today, that is from the New Zealand series which is going to happen in a week’s time,” he added.
Former explosive opener feels India should start preparing for the next T20 World Cup 2024 from the New Zealand series.
“You start from today, the preparation for the World cup, you need to understand, starts 2 years in advance. So, you do whatever you want to do, the trial and error policy, do whatever you want, try it for one year, then you form a team and by 2023 make sure this is going to be at the level that is going to play the World Cup,” Srikkanth said.
Srikkanth also believes it is important for the team to have fast-bowling all-rounders to be more successful.
“You need more fast-ball all-rounders. Let’s see, the 1983 World Cup, 2011 World Cup, and 2007 T20 World Cup, why did we win? We had many fast-ball all-rounders and semi-allrounders. So, to identify these guys – guys like (Deepak) Hooda, like Hooda, there are going to be so many more Hoodas,” he said.
India will take on New Zealand on Friday at Wellington.
