A little injustice meted out to Hardik Pandya: Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Bangar

Mumbai: Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Bangar said that a "little injustice" has been done to all-rounder Hardik Pandya after Suryakumar Yadav was chosen as the T20I captain for India's white-ball tour to Sri Lanka starting from July 27 onwards.

India has named Suryakumar Yadav as the captain of their men's T20I team for the tour of Sri Lanka, with Shubman Gill as the vice-captain of the T20I and ODI sides.

Notably, Hardik, who was leading the T20I sides in the tours after the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 debacle in Australia, where England beat India by 10 wickets in the semis, has been removed from the leadership roles. He led India in 16 T20I matches, winning 10, losing five, and one ending in a tie. His win percentage was 62.50.

Hardik's removal from leadership came despite his strong performance in the T20 World Cup triumph, scoring 144 runs in six innings at an average of 48.00 and a strike rate of 151.57, with a half-century and best score of 50*. He also took 11 wickets in eight games at an average of 17.36 and an economy rate of 7.64, with the best figures of 3/20.

Also, Suryakumar led India in two series just after the 50-over World Cup 2023 final loss to Australia, in which Australia toured India and India made a tour to South Africa. Overall, he led India in seven matches, winning five and losing two. He won the series against Australia, while the series against South Africa ended in a draw.

Speaking on Star Sports during the 'Follow the Blues' programme, Bangar said that though Suryakumar has captaincy experience in domestic cricket and brings the best out of players, there is still some injustice meted out to Hardik.

"It is 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," said Bangar.

"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," added the former Indian all-rounder.

Bangar expressed his surprise at Hardik not being the captain, because to him, it seemed like had Rohit not been the captain for a series against Afghanistan earlier this year when Hardik was injured, the all-rounder would have continued as a captain anyways.

"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 had not become the captain and Hardik had not gotten injured at that time, Hardik only would have become the captain," said Bangar. (ANI)

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