Ajit Agarkar not convinced with Hardik Pandya's captaincy credentials reason behind his T20I captaincy snub - Reports

Hardik Pandya has captained the Indian side in 16 T20I matches till now.

Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya was the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team during the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. Pandya also played a crucial role in helping his side to the title triumph. However, things changed quickly for him as the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the squads for the white-ball tour of Sri Lanka. 

With Rohit Sharma taking retirement from T20Is, it was expected that Hardik would become the new T20I captain of the Indian team from upcoming three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka, but the Indian management had different ideas as they named Suryakumar Yadav as the new captain of the T20I side.

Since then, many media reports have stated that Hardik’s fitness was the biggest concern for the BCCI selectors, so they opted to go with Suryakumar instead of him.

Recently, a report in the Hindustan Times also stated that newly appointed head coach Gautam Gambhir has asked Hardik to prove his bowling fitness in ODIs and Gambhir advised him to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy.

“Hardik was also reminded by Gambhir on the call, that he was looking forward to see him bowl his full quota in ODIs,” a BCCI official told Hindustan Times.

Gautam Gambhir and Ajit Agarkar weren’t convinced by Hardik’s tactical awareness

In the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 season, Hardik replaced Rohit Sharma as the new skipper of the Mumbai Indians (MI) after being traded in from Gujarat Titans in an all-cash deal.

As GT’s captain, Hardik won the IPL 2022 title and then went on to play the 2023 edition’s final as well, where they suffered a defeat at the hands of Chennai Super Kings in Ahmedabad.

In IPL 2024, Hardik had a poor run with MI as their captain. The franchise failed to reach the playoffs. The franchise finished at bottom of the standings with just four victories to their name in 14 league stage matches.

After being snubbed from T20I captaincy for the upcoming three-match Sri Lanka series, a fresh report in PTI has claimed that head coach Gambhir’s arrival did play a role on Pandya not becoming T20I captain, but chief selector Ajit Agarkar also wasn’t happy and convinced by Pandya’s tactical awareness, which is required to become a successful captain.

The report further added that, Agarkar feels Hardik needs a bit of handholding and GT coach Ashish Nehra did that with him in the IPL 2022 and 2023 editions. Whereas, the MI coach Mark Boucher wasn’t that man for Pandya.

The report further revealed that the younger group in the Indian cricket team dressing room wants to have Suryakumar as the skipper rather than Pandya, as they respond to Suryakumar better than Hardik.

India squad for T20I series against Sri Lanka:

Suryakumar Yadav (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Riyan Parag, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Khaleel Ahmed, Mohd. Siraj.

India squad for ODI series against Sri Lanka:

Rohit Sharma (C), Ꮪhubman Gill (VC), Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Rishabh Pant (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Riyan Parag, Axar Patel, Khaleel Ahmed, Harshit Rana.

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