His own friend is not happy with Gambhir-Agarkar's decision, raised voice in support of Hardik Pandya
Till a few days before the announcement of Team India for the Sri Lanka tour, it was believed that Hardik Pandya would be the captain of the team in the T20 series because he was also the vice-captain in the T20 World Cup, but suddenly the selection committee surprised everyone by completely removing Hardik from the leadership role.
Hardik Pandya did not get the captaincy of the T20 team.
Image Credit: PTI
When he got the chance to captain for the first time, he made his team IPL champion. Then in the next season also he led the team to the finals. After this, when he got the chance to captain Team India, he performed well himself and also led the team to victory. Then after returning from injury, when it was the turn of the T20 World Cup, he played an important role in making Team India the champion as the vice-captain. Even after doing so much, when it was time to appoint a new captain, the BCCI selection committee and new coach Gautam Gambhir chose Suryakumar Yadav instead of Hardik Pandya. In such a situation, the question arises that what did Hardik do wrong? This question is being asked not only by millions of fans, but also by a former Indian cricketer who was a colleague of Gambhir and chief selector Ajit Agarkar.
The squad for Team India's Sri Lanka tour was announced on Thursday, July 18. Team India has to play T20 and ODI series on this tour. Even before the announcement of the team, the issue of T20 captain started heating up. Before the team selection, it was believed that after Rohit Sharma's retirement, Hardik Pandya would take charge in this format, but suddenly some reports came, in which it was told that Suryakumar Yadav could get this responsibility. Ultimately this happened and Hardik was removed from captaincy as well as vice-captaincy and leadership was handed over to Surya and Shubman Gill.
Hardik did nothing wrong
Since the announcement of the team, the issue that has been dominating the media and social media is whether something went wrong with Hardik? Former batsman Mohammad Kaif, who played for a long time with Gambhir-Agarkar in Team India, is also surprised by this. In an interview, Kaif raised the question that what wrong did Hardik do. The former experienced batsman admitted that a new coaching team has come and in such a situation, they will make some new changes and that is why Suryakumar Yadav has got the captaincy but Kaif also said that they should have given a chance to Hardik.
Mohammad Kaif described Gambhir as an experienced captain and coach who understands cricket very well but at the same time supported Hardik and said that he had not done anything wrong for which he was not given the captaincy. Kaif recalled Hardik's performance as the captain of Gujarat Titans and said that he had made a completely new team a champion with new faces and hence he deserved the captaincy. However, Kaif expressed hope that Suryakumar Yadav, one of the best T20 batsmen in the world, would be able to handle the responsibility of captaincy along with batting.