On their first meeting, Hardik Pandya gave Suryakumar Yadav a hug at the airport after Suyra was named India’s new T20I skipper for the trip to Sri Lanka.
Between Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya, everything is well. Not that there were any doubts, but following the events of the past few days, which saw Surya appointed to the position of captain of India’s Twenty20 international squad, surpassing Hardik, the vice-captain of the team that won the Twenty20 World Cup, there was the occasional misanthropic eye searching for something to generate traffic on social media. Hardik ensured that there wasn’t any.
Following the selectors’ decision to outline a plan for India’s Twenty20 International team in the post-Rohit Kohli era, with Suryakumar at the center, Hardik and the recently anointed T20I captain got along like brothers in their first meeting.
Before leaving for Colombo on Monday, July 22, Hardik and Suryakumar were seen giving each other a hearty hug at the Mumbai airport in a video that the BCCI posted late on Monday night. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport saw the assembly of the Indian T20 team on Monday afternoon as they prepared to depart for a three-match series that will begin on July 27.
In the IPL, Hardik and Surya are teammates as well. They stand in for the Indians of Mumbai.
Hardik Pandya hugs Suryakumar Yadav in first meeting after captaincy swap
After the World Cup victory, Rohit Sharma declared his retirement from the shortest format, and Hardik was seen to be the front-runner to inherit the T20I captaincy. For nearly a year, from December 2022 to October 2023, the all-rounder was really India’s unofficial T20I captain. However, after he sustained an ankle injury during the ODI World Cup group stages the previous year, things changed.
Captain availability for all upcoming Twenty20 International matches was a priority for both Ajit Agarkar, the chairman of selectors, and new coach Gautam Gambhir. With Hardik’s dismal injury history, they were not quite certain that he was that man.
Why Suryakumar was made T20I captain ahead of Hardik Pandya
“What made Surya the captain? as he is among the worthy contenders. You receive a lot of input from the dressing room, according to the person we know who has been there for the past year. During the joint news conference, Agarkar stated, “He is still one of the best T20 batters in the world and has a good cricketing brain.”
“Ideally, a captain should be more inclined to participate in every game. We believe he is a worthy choice, and we look forward to watching him grow in the position over time.”The chairman of selectors stated that instead of Pandya, who is thought to be prone to ailments, they preferred a captain with a track record of fitness.
“But in regards to Hardik (Pandya), he’s still a very important player for us and that’s what we want him to be that player that he can be because those sorts of skill sets are very difficult to find what he has,” Agarkar stated.
“Fitness, obviously, has been a challenge for him over the last few years and then it becomes a little bit more difficult for him and even as selectors,” he explained.
We have a little more time before the next T20 World Cup, so we can look at a few things while we attempt to. Right now, nothing is hurried.”
The idea behind it was that, as I mentioned before, we want him to be a vital player for us and that, ideally, his performances would carry greater weight. We want someone who is most likely to be available since the fitness is an obvious obstacle,” Agarkar stated.
He shot back, saying, “I wasn’t there when KL was superseded; I wasn’t the selector firstly.” in reference to the former vice captain KL Rahul being passed up.
“Now that we have a little more time until the… There has been a 50-over World Cup since I arrived, and the T20 World Cup pretty immediately after. Not only is fitness an issue, but we also believe Surya possesses the skills needed to be a competent captain.
Since two years is a long period, it at least provides us with an opportunity to try approaching some issues from a new angle. The most important thing is that we are looking for males that are always free. We also think we can control Hardik a little bit better in this approach,” he said.
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