Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir heaped praise on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy and feels he did everything right in the T20I series against Sri Lanka, which India won by 2-1. Pandya was leading for the first time in home conditions and delivered as a leader as he got the best out of his players.
Pandya has led in three T20I series and India has won in all three of them. The all-rounder is growing in confidence as a leader since he led Gujarat Titans to glory in his maiden season as captain in IPL 2022.
Hardik Pandya has been doing a fine job and many cricket experts reckon he should lead India in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
Gautam Gambhir said on Star Sports show Follow the Blues, “I think a lot of positives in this series. I think Hardik’s captaincy, you have got to probably give it to him because he has done everything possible right what was asked of his captaincy.”
Former Delhi player feels Umran Malik, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rahul Tripathi were the positives for India. Malik scalped seven wickets in three matches, which was the most in the series whereas Tripathi scored a fine cameo of 35 runs off just 16 balls.
“More importantly, the way the young bowlers bowled – Umran Malik. Suryakumar Yadav’s batting, the cameo from Rahul Tripathi. So I believe there have been excellent signs in this series from this young team.”
On the other hand, Gautam Gambhir feels it is difficult to look beyond Suryakumar Yadav as India’s performer of the series. Yadav scored 51 runs in the second T20I whereas he smashed an unbeaten knock of 112 runs off just 51 balls in the third T20I against the visitors.
“It’s very difficult to look beyond Suryakumar Yadav with the kind of innings he played at Rajkot. But he is an established cricketer. I feel that Umran Malik was probably very, very impressive. A young bowler who bowled with pace, but despite that the accuracy with which he bowled, he is a huge positive.”
Gambhir continued to shower praise on Hardik Pandya’s captaincy.
“Hardik was pretty impressive the way he captained the side. There were times when we thought that he should have bowled first but then he did the complete opposite of that but still was very professional the way he handled his team.”
The first ODI between India and Sri Lanka will be played on Tuesday in Guwahati.
