Hardik Pandya is, and will continue to be, one of India’s go-to white-ball cricketers. He has captained India with success and also done well as skipper in franchise cricket. However, soon after the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, when many felt he would be appointed skipper, the selection committee opted for Suryakumar Yadav. The reason given was Hardik’s fitness being a concern. Unless he was a certainty for all games, it was not a risk worth taking. Surya, to be fair, has done an excellent job as skipper and his handling of Sanju Samson, for example, has helped get the best out of the merfcurial wicketkeeper-batter.
The captaincy isn’t the point anymore. Surya has settled into the job and is doing it well. But what about vice-captaincy? In the T20 side against England, Axar Patel has been named Surya’s deputy. And once more, Pandya has been overlooked. First things first – this is not a reflection on Axar, who has done well for India in the opportunities that he has been given. He could even captain Delhi Capitals in the forthcoming IPL.
But that doesn’t explain why Pandya wasn’t chosen. Are the selectors telling us that Pandya’s dream of leading India is now a thing of the past? If so, why? He is fit and has played a full season of domestic cricket. He could walk into any Indian set-up at the moment. And yet, he isn’t the vice-captain for the England series. While there is plenty of backroom chatter, shouldn’t there be more transparency on the matter? Should the selectors reveal if things are over for Pandya as far as leadership is concerned? It becomes more interesting because he will soon be leading the Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
Has Indian cricket treated Pandya unfairly? Are there things that we don’t know that aren’t out there in the public domain? Will he ever be given a leadership role again? Does such a snub impact a player’s motivation, or is it something that will not bother him?
There is the Sachin Tendulkar example. He was removed from captaincy without even him being informed. And that’s when he said to himself that they could indeed take the captaincy away from him, but none of them could do a thing to his cricket. He went on to score a further 20,000 international runs and over 50 centuries.
Is there a lesson here for Pandya? Should he just seek motivation from this snub and focus on his cricket to prove a point? Will India benefit from such a thing, and would that be a just riposte for what he has been subjected to?
The truth is that Pandya is key to India’s white-ball success. He will have a critical role to play in the Champions Trophy. He played a defining role in the T20 World Cup and could do the same in the all-important Pakistan game in Dubai. To do so, however, he needs to be in the proper mind space. One can only hope that these things which have been taking place on the fringes don’t really impact his focus going forward.
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