(July 25), The outspoken Rashid Latif believes that Hardik Pandya’s lack of fitness is merely an excuse for keeping him off the captaincy.
Rashid Latif, a former captain of Pakistan, has joined the chorus of former players who are wondering why Hardik Pandya isn’t the new captain of India for the Twenty20 international series. By selecting Suryakumar Yadav as the new T20I captain instead of Hardik, who served as Rohit Sharma’s deputy during the victorious T20 World Cup campaign, the BCCI made a daring move.
Although chief selector Ajit Agarkar cited the star all-rounder’s fitness concerns as the reason BCCI chose Suryakumar over him for the key role, Hardik, who has led Gujarat Titans to the IPL title, was expected to succeed Rohit.
The T20I vice-captaincy of the star all-rounder was also lost to Shubman Gill, as the selection committee preferred a young player to develop into a future star.
The outspoken Latif believes that Hardik’s lack of fitness is merely an excuse for not selecting him as captain. He also believes that the selectors ought to issue an unfit certificate to the all-round player if they believe he has fitness issues.
No, they (the claims) simply give him a certificate indicating that he is unfit and that there are questions regarding his fitness. Many players who weren’t particularly fit went on to become excellent captains. Thus, I believe it was merely a pretext. Since you have to consider the future, Rishabh (Pant) would have been the captain if Surya hadn’t been present, Latif remarked.
Agarkar gave the shortest explanation for why Hardik was not selected as Rohit’s replacement during a press conference held prior to India’s departure for the tour of Sri Lanka.
Finding Hardik’s skill sets and level of fitness is challenging. We can look at a few things now that we have a little more time. We wanted someone who was probably going to be available more frequently because fitness was obviously a challenge, Agarkar stated.
“We have taken general feedback from the dressing room also,” he stated.
In the upcoming T20I series comprising three matches against Sri Lanka, Hardik will now be playing for the first time under captain Suryakumar Yadav. The three-match series will kick off with the first Twenty20 International on July 27. Matches on July 28 and 30 will follow.
