Kapil Dev Warns Selectors Ahead Of Handing India’s White-Ball Captaincy To Hardik Pandya

New Delhi: Star Indian player Hardik Pandya is next in the line to become India’s white-ball captain. The all-rounder has already captained for India in the T20I side and is all set to replace Rohit Sharma as India’s captain in ODIs as well.

Hardik has successfully debut as captain of Gujarat Titans and lifted Indian Premier League trophy. Hardik was given the opportunity to lead the team for the first time in the cash-rich league, and he made the most of it by exceeding expectations.

After showing his outstanding leadership quality, he was handed India’s T20I captaincy for the first time in June 2022 against Ireland for a short two-match series.  And then he was again made the team’s captain for the away series against New Zealand last year, after the end of the T20 World Cup.

Hardik has captained India total in nine matches and out of nine he has won six and is likely to captain India in next T20 World Cup.

Legendary Indian cricketer Kapil Dev commented that if selectors are looking at Hardik as the future India captain, then they have to back the all-rounder to the core even if results don’t go in his favour at any point.

“I think one shouldn’t look at the world. You look at your team and your way of thinking. If Hardik Pandya is there, they should not say that if you lose one series, we will remove you. If you make someone a captain, you have to give him a fairly long rope to make sure he will start performing. He will make mistakes but they key is that you don’t see the error but focus on whether he is ready for taking the team and look for the future. You don’t go series-by-series,” Kapil told Gulf News.