Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned Hardik Pandya’s non-appointment as India’s T20I vice-captain. For the upcoming England T20I series, Axar Patel has been appointed as Suryakumar Yadav’s deputy.
Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya was the favorite to take over the T20I captaincy after Rohit Sharma’s retirement following T20 World Cup 2024 triumph but the selectors backed Suryakumar Yadav as the former has injury and workload issues. Pandya leads Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League and he was also leading India in Rohit Sharma’s absence before the T20I showpiece.
Chopra noted that India has tried many T20I captains in the past.
“India have had 10 captains in T20Is in the last five years. Suryakumar Yadav is the current captain. Ruturaj Gaikwad was the captain some time ago and before that, Hardik Pandya was the captain for a long time, and then Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. KL Rahul also captained. Even Shubman Gill did the captaincy,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“That is my point – what happened with Hardik Pandya? No one is thinking or talking about him. What exactly has happened? His T20 World Cup was very good and after that, he played a lot of domestic cricket as well. He is an IPL team’s captain and India have won five of the six T20I series he has captained. Hardik Pandya used to be the captain when Rohit wasn’t available,” Chopra added.
The renowned commentator believes it wouldn’t be fair to blame Hardik Pandya for Mumbai Indians’ poor run in IPL 2024. MI finished as the cellar dwellers in the previous season as they managed only four wins in 14 games.
“What has happened suddenly that he is not even the vice-captain? He is not even becoming a point of discussion, as to why is Hardik Pandya not the captain. You cannot blame him for the Mumbai Indians’ bad season. Even if he had a bad season and his captaincy might have been bad, what does the Indian team have to do with that?” he said.
“The Indian team’s captaincy is not decided based on how you captain for the franchise. There are many captains whose franchises weren’t doing anything, but they remained as captains for Team India. So it is slightly beyond my understanding as to what exactly is happening with Hardik Pandya,” Chopra observed.
IPL 2025 is all set to begin on March 21.
