NEW DELHI: He left the Caribbean basking in the glory of India’s first ICC tournament win in 11 years. But in just three weeks, Hardik Pandya’s world has changed forever.
Elite sport can be unforgiving and Pandya found that out when he lost the captaincy of India’s T20 team for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka to Suriya Kumar Yadav while battling personal issues.
The vote of “no confidence” in his leadership abilities was so firm and blatant that one of the most dramatic developments in Indian cricket has once again left the brilliant all-rounder facing big question marks.
Would Mumbai Indians, the IPL’s deepest-pocketed and most vocal franchise, be willing to give current manager Pandya another year in charge, replacing last year’s most popular captain (Rohit Sharma)?
Rohit led the team to a T20 World Cup title and has risen to become second only to Mahendra Singh Dhoni in Indian cricket just months after being released by the IPL franchise.
So how will they deal with Rohit ahead of the big auction next year and what if the Indian skipper is not interested in staying?
To make things even more interesting, MI also have new India T20 captain Surya in their ranks and will need to retain him at all costs ahead of next year’s mega auction.
To retain the Indian captain, MI may have to make Surya an offer he cannot refuse, especially considering he is the Indian captain harbouring ambitions of leading the most popular franchise in the IPL.
There is another perspective to ponder. It is an open secret in Indian cricket that fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah loves the role of a leader, but he is not always called upon to lead the team as his skills are as precious as gold kept in Fort Knox. However, he would not mind remaining first among his peers.
So where does all this leave Pandya, who moved to Michigan in a highly publicised all-cash deal after a hugely successful stint with Gujarat Titans, only to be booed in every corner of the country in the last IPL?
The IPL Governing Committee is yet to announce how many players they will allow to stay but if they stick to four (one of which is an overseas player), that would leave franchises with three Indian players to choose from.
The upcoming big auction will be centred around building the team for the next five years and some tough decisions will be made.
MI’s core management would wholeheartedly agree that the manner in which Pandya was elevated to captaincy ultimately did not lead to a happy environment and the bottom-placed result only strengthened those narratives.
The appointment of Gautam Gambhir as India coach has obviously shaken Pandya’s prospects as national captain, but even the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee was not entirely convinced that Pandya was tactically astute enough to be expected of an international captain.
He needs some help and Ashish Nehra did that for him at GT, Mark Boucher wasn’t that guy at MI and the overall feedback is that the younger players in the Indian dressing room could handle Surya a lot better than Pandya.
What’s next for Pandya? A strong performance in the T20Is in Sri Lanka to win a point. And he can’t just wait for the India game. He needs to play domestic cricket to improve on his subpar international appearance rate of 50% across the two white-ball formats in the last 19 months (69 matches (46 of 79 T20Is and 23 of 59 ODIs) since January 22).
Indian cricket is always full of twists and turns and if Pandya wants to feature in next year’s Champions Trophy, he will need to play the Vijay Hazare Trophy in Baroda in December.
Pandya’s coaching ambitions face big obstacles but in cricket it’s not over until the last ball is bowled.
Published July 19, 2024 13:07 IST
